Donald Trump and Boris Johnson helped inspire a certain Wendell & Wild villain
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If you watch Wendell & Wild, the new stop-motion animated film from director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas), and get Donald Trump or Boris Johnson vibes from the Lane Klaxon character, there's a reason for that.
Selick admits in an interview with EW that he pulled inspiration for that figure, voiced by actor David Harewood, at first from the former U.S. president and then from the former U.K. prime minister.
"I've been working on this movie so long — I mean, seriously," Selick says when asked if Trump had been an inspiration. "So originally there was some Trump inspiration, and then he got elected president 'cause I started on this [movie] in 2015, working with Jordan [Peele]. We met, and we started working out the historic characters and everything, and there was gonna be a little Trump inspiration, but we went, 'Jesus Christ! We can't be influenced by him. Who's the next best? Boris Johnson!' So it went there, and then he became the prime minister, and we completely rethought him. But yeah, you're right. That was the beginning."
Klaxon maintains a rough blonde wig and dark suit with a red tie, very reminiscent of Trump's signature look. Along with his wife, Irmgard Klaxon (voiced by Maxine Peake), he co-founded Klax Korp., which specializes in private, for-profit prisons. They had been trying to take over the brewery owned by the parents of Kat (Lyric Ross) and finally succeeded after their death.
Netflix Lyric Ross stars in 'Wendell & Wild' as an Afro-punk teen whose tricked into summoning two demon brothers to the land of the living.
Wendell & Wild is primarily the story of Kat, now living at a Catholic private school, who's tricked by two demons (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) into summoning them to the land of the living. But the film also works as a commentary on the prison industrial complex.
Peele, who co-wrote and executive produced Wendell & Wild with Selick, was instrumental in shaping the story and its villains. "It was never gonna be monsters and demons," Selick says. "It was always gonna be bad humans. It took a while for it to evolve, but ultimately it was like, 'Yeah, let's have them be builders of private prisons, which a lot of people still don't know about. And beyond that, they'll also be murderers.'"
Selick gives credit to his wife, Heather, as well. He says she used to work as a teacher before producing animation pieces. "For 10 years, she was an advocate for kids in trouble, special needs kids. So I learned all about the school-to-prison pipeline and zero tolerance and all this stuff of how things are set up to shove certain kids into the system without a fair chance. We don't make it a huge part of the movie, but I wanted some anchors in the real world, with all this fantasy and crazy stuff."
Wendell & Wild is available in theaters now before hitting Netflix on Friday, Oct. 28.
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