While James Gunn is promising to bring some actors from his Guardians of the Galaxy movies to the DC Universe where he now operates as co-CEO, he brought a few stars from The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with his recent Holiday Special and Vol. 3. Gunn has brought a number of actors from his Marvel work to DC already and with Vol. 3 brought a few friends from the DC work to the Marvel world. In fact, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s High Evolutionary actor Chukwudi Iwuji landed the villain role while working with Gunn on HBO Max’s Peacemaker series.
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“I was introduced to the character circa sort of March of 2021,” Iwuji told ComicBook.com. “We just finished doing a take of the dance sequence in Peacemaker for the opening credits and between takes. James said, ‘Can I have a word with you?’ And I joked, I said, you know, as an actor wondering if you ever… this is when you get fired. I joked, ‘Is this when you thought you’d hired Chewitel Ejiofor but you hired Chukwudi Iwuji by mistake?’ And then he said, ‘No, actually, it’s actually not that, but I actually want you to play the High Evolutionary in Guardians with Galaxy 3.’”
At the time, Iwuji was playing Murn in Peacemaker. The character was pivotal to the acclaimed HBO Max series which spun out of Gunn’s work on The Suicide Squad movie. Iwuji was unfamiliar with the High Evolutionary character from comics, ultimately educating himself on the role quite quickly after the conversation on the Peacemaker set. “That’s how I was introduced it. I’d never heard of the character before. Didn’t know the character,” Iwuji said. “Of course, from that point on, I went and looked at all the material and went, ‘Oh God, I’m gonna be this guy.’ And that’s how the journey started for me.” From there, he went on to play the part which called for quite a bit of dark intensity with other cast members portraying animals in the third Guardians film, something Iwuji found to be a bit of a challenge in itself.
Iwuji’s work as the High Evolutionary is earning praise from critics and fans, with the character’s sinister perspective of animals and altering their genetics prompting PETA to award James Gunn for crafting an, “animal rights masterpiece.” Still, some moviegoers are having a hard time watching the cruelty exhibited by Iwuji’s character in the film, which many are seeing as a testament to the actor’s talent and intensity of the script from Gunn. The film had the biggest Thursday night for any Guardians of the Galaxy movie before ultimately landing with more than $100 million at the box office in its opening weekend.
As noted earlier, Iwuji was hardly the only actor Gunn worked with on a DC project before bringing them to the Marvel project. In The Suicide Squad, Nathan Fillion played T.D.K., Daniel Melchior played Ratcatcher-2, Pom Klementieff appeared as a dancer in a bar, Pete Davison played Blackguard, Jennifer Holland played Emilia Harcourt, and Send Gunn portrayed Calendar Man. All of those actors appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Meanwhile, Javelin, Peacemaker, and Harley Quinn actors Flula Borg, John Cena, and Margot Robbie each appeared in the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (though, Cena and Robbie were only photos on a map as themselves).
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now playing in theaters. What did you think of Iwuji’s work as the High Evolutionary? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Twitter! ComicBook.com’s full interview with Iwuji and his co-star Will Poulter can be found on the Phase Zero channel!
