Like it or not, we’re about to see more Donald Trump on our screens – but this one will be fake.

Marvel star Sebastian Stan will be taking on the role of a young Trump in the upcoming biopic, The Apprentice.

Media reports bill the film as an exploration of power and ambition, set in a world of corruption and deceit.

Headed up by award-winning Iranian director Ali Abbasi – known for his work on 2018 film Holy Spider and HBO series The Last of Us –The Apprentice will be a mentor-protégé story examining Trump’s efforts to build his real estate business in New York in the 1970s and ’80s, while also digging into his relationship with infamous American attorney Roy Cohn.

The film will not be Stan’s first time sinking his teeth into a character based on a real-life public figure.

The actor has previously scored roles in films such as Dumb Money (2023) and I,Tonya (2017), and he received an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee in the Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy.

While Pam & Tommy garnered some backlash for not gaining Pamela Anderson’s permission or involvement in the production, Stan was praised for his commitment to his role which included drastic weight loss.

The actor, who is best known for playing the Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes in Marvel films and shows, told IndieWire he’s increasingly drawn to roles that make him uncomfortable as he gets older.

“I find usually that fear is a good indicator of something that I have to sort of step into, perhaps to understand better,” he said.

In response to the backlash against Pam & Tommy, he said everyone involved in the film knew it was going to be a dramatised telling of the story.

“I think it’s difficult to sit there and pick apart every single stitching of every script and sort of say, ‘Is this what happened?’ We will never really know what happened because we were not there and we can’t assume or presume.”

Critically acclaimed cast

Stan will be joined on-screen by Emmy-winning Succession star Jeremy Strong and Maria Bakalova, whose work on Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020) netted her an Oscar nomination.

None of the actors has publicly commented on the news of their casting in The Apprentice, but production reportedly commenced this week.

Deadline reports Strong will play Cohn, while Bakalova will portray Trump’s first wife, Ivana.

The film is written by American journalist Gabriel Sherman, whose best-selling biography of Fox News president Roger Ailes inspired the Showtime miniseries The Loudest Voice, starring Russell Crowe.

While Sherman is yet to comment on The Apprentice, he has written several articles about Trump for Vanity Fair this year, looking at everything from Trump’s pro-Israel stance to his legal woes.

Trump is currently the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 US presidential election; simultaneously, he is fighting several felony charges, including conspiracy to defraud the US.