(Maire Clayton, Headline USA) The new film Mickey 17 made critics think twice as the villain played by Mark Ruffalo seemed to resemble President Donald Trump.
Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho previously denied the claim while speaking with Entertainment Weekly.
He said the character was “a mix of many different politicians” and “dictators that we have seen throughout history.”
The Independent’s review of the film was titled “Mickey 17 is an absurdist, anti-capitalist, Trump-mocking masterpiece.”
The pop culture site ScreenRant put out an article comparing all of the similarities between the character and Trump.
The article referenced a scene in the film where an assassination attempt takes place on the villain where he gets grazed by a bullet. However, the film was competed in January 2023, prior to the assassination attempt on Trump in Bulter, Pennsylvania.
The director of the film commented on the similarity, according to Variety.
“We shot this film in London in 2022 and there’s a particular thing that happened in 2024 that was quite similar in this film,” Joon-ho began. “Mark Ruffalo was also quite surprised to see it play out in reality and wondered, ‘Were we oracles predicting the future?’”
The far-left site Salon similarly said the character must have been based off of Trump. “Bong Joon-ho rips into Trump with a rousing, space-set satire,” the article stated.
Joon-ho was also asked by Entertainment Weekly if he had an opinion on Trump previously criticizing his Oscar-winning film Parasite.
“I’m not a petty person. I don’t hold it against him,” the director said. “He can have his own opinion.”
Ruffalo previously alluded to the similarities while he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“I play a petty dictator,” he told Fallon. “At the time, we shot it three years ago, and I thought this is over the top. And now, I realize it’s totally underplayed. I mean, I made a documentary.”
