The Comey Rule: Brendan Gleeson draws Batman comparisons as a ‘less cartoonish’ Trump in first trailer for new series

Two-part limited series dramatises the FBI’s immediate response to the Trump presidency

Brendan Gleeson’s “less cartoonish” take on Donald Trump for the new limited series The Comey Rule has drawn a mixed response following its first trailer.

Jeff Daniels co-stars as the former FBI director James Comey in the Showtime series, which takes place in the aftermath of the 2016 US presidential election.

The two-part drama depicts the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails and potential Russian involvement in the election, as well as Comey’s personality clash with the new president.

It is Gleeson’s transformative performance as Trump, however, that has already inspired raves and criticism.

The Irish actor’s face, masked by prosthetics, has been hidden in the preview clip, but his take on Trump’s distinct voice appears throughout.

“Brendan Gleeson is going to be brilliant,” one viewer tweeted.

“The look of Trump is pretty good here but I feel the voice is a bit off and feels rougher than in real life,” wrote a YouTube viewer. “It made me think of Christian Bale’s voice for Batman.”

“Gleeson’s probably gonna nail it but the voice is almost too butch,” another added. “He needs to be more whiny.”

Billy Ray, who wrote and directed the series, has revealed that they aimed to make Gleeson’s interpretation of Trump “less cartoonish” than it could have been.

“Everywhere that we could, we dialled it down,” he told Vanity Fair. “We made the contrast between the bags under his eyes and the orange skin softer than it actually is. We made the hair a little less cartoonish than it actually is. We made the suits fit a little bit better. We went out of our way to play fair because we felt we owed that to the public. We are not here to ridicule anybody.”

The Comey Rule will debut on US cable channel Showtime on 27 September, with a UK release still to be confirmed.