Fans divided after first photos of Sebastian Stan playing Donald Trump emerge

‘Succession’s’ Jeremy Strong and ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’s’ Maria Bakalova will also appear in the film

The first pictures of Sebastian Stan playing a young Donald Trump in a new film by Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi have been released.

As reported last week, the cast of the upcoming movie will also include Succession’s Jeremy Strong as Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’s Maria Bakalova as Trump’s first wife, Ivana.

Thought to be titled The Apprentice, Abbasi’s film will deal with Trump’s early years in New York building his real estate business in the 1970s and 1980s. It will also examine his relationship with Cohn, an infamous attorney and political operator.

The first photos from the production have been published by Page Six. Taken on a snowy day in Toronto, they show Stan transformed into Trump with wispy blonde hair and wearing a single-breasted black wool coat with a blue suit and paisley-striped tie.

Not everyone was convinced by the transformation with many reacting to the photos on social media.

“Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump looks like bad Princess Diana cosplay,” one person joked on Twitter/X.

“They really got a hot actor like Sebastian Stan to play the orange man,” another added.

“Bro just looks like Luke Skywalker,” joked a third.

Actor Sebastian Stan (left) and Donald Trump (Getty)

Stan is no stranger to depicting real-life figures on screen. He received Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his portrayal of rocker Tommy Lee opposite Lily James’ Pamela Anderson in Hulu’s Pam & Tommy, and recently portrayed Robinhood co-founder Vlad Tenev in the GameStop stock movie Dumb Money.

He is probably best known for his appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe role as Bucky Barnes, also known as the Winter Soldier. His most recent appearance as the superhero was on the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and he’s set to reprise the role once again in The Thunderbolts in 2025.

As well as Succession, Strong’s other recent credits include appearances in Armageddon Time, The Trial of the Chicago 7, and The Gentlemen. Bakalova recently appeared in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Abbasi’s first feature film was the horror Shelley (2016), while his second film, Border, won the Un Certain Regard award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.

His third film, Holy Spider, explored the true story of a serial killer who operated in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad and debuted at Cannes in 2022. He is also known for directing several episodes of HBO’s hit post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us.

Former President Trump is currently embroiled in a civil fraud trial. According to documents released on Wednesday, Deutsche Bank viewed Trump as a “whale” of a client and eagerly cultivated a relationship that grew from $13,000 worth of revenue to $6m in two years.

The bank’s dealings with Trump are a key issue in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, which accuses Trump, his company and some executives of hoodwinking lenders and insurers by presenting them with grossly inflated statements of his asset values. The defendants deny any wrongdoing.