David Bridges
Key Insights
- Character Connection: Sean Gunn portrays Maxwell Lord, linking the narratives of Superman and Peacemaker.
- Role Dynamics: Maxwell is depicted as a collaborative figure rather than a distant benefactor.
- Visual Representation: The Hall of Justice mural highlights Maxwell’s subdued presence among heroes.
- Engagement Style: Gunn emphasizes Maxwell’s camaraderie with his colleagues in the Justice Gang.
In a conversation with the Reel Rejects, actor Sean Gunn discussed his role as Maxwell Lord as a connective thread between Superman and Peacemaker.
Portraying the megabucks metahuman investor as someone who wants to work alongside metahumans is key to Gunn, and his take is to make sure he’s in the know of the choices being made, from outfits to the mural in the Hall of Justice. “There’s no way that somebody in charge like that wouldn’t be aware of what’s going on, and we can tell,” he shared.
“We can see it from Peacemaker [that] Maxwell’s hands-on with stuff. So the idea that he wouldn’t know what the [Hall of Justice] mural looked like or that he wouldn’t know what the uniforms or the outfits look like—there’s no way he wouldn’t know. There’s no way. So yes, that’s just information for me about who he is.”
In Peacemaker, we get a glimpse of how Maxwell’s day-to-day with the Justice Gang goes in his very rich dude way. “The scene we did see in the trailer of him being so hands-on is kind of your equalizer… he has some sort of camaraderie with these characters. He’s not just [like] when we meet Lex [Luthor] in Superman. Lex is definitely more of a [lone wolf], even though he’s surrounded by people. [Everyone] else exists [to Lex] ‘for me to bend them to my whim.’ Whereas I think even in that little scene in Peacemaker, we can see that Maxwell is not quite like that—that he’s actually engaging shoulder to shoulder with Guy [Gardner] and with Hawkgirl, and he may be the boss, but he’s engaging with them as colleagues in a way.”
One of the highlights of his approach is seen in the Hall of Justice mural featured in Superman, which depicts great moments of metahuman presence and features the inclusion of Lord as a figurehead but dressed decidedly more subdued than the heroes. Gunn conceded that it speaks to what Maxwell wants to convey: “I think that we can definitely assume that Maxwell sees himself as a member of the team more than just a benefactor.”
See the mural below for a glimpse of Lord among the metahumans, as shared by DC Studios head and director James Gunn:
You asked for it, you got it. Here’s the full mural honoring the History of Metahumans in the DCU adorning the Hall of Justice in #Superman. pic.twitter.com/GUALUPFsR0
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) July 25, 2025
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