Peacemaker Star Chukwudi Iwuji Teases His “Extremely Powerful” Guardians of the Galaxy 3 Character

While it’s still unknown what character Peacemaker star Chukwudi Iwuji is playing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the actor has offered up a small description of his upcoming Marvel role. Iwuji currently portrays Clemson Murn on Peacemaker, the leader of the black ops team featuring John Cena’s titular DC antihero. While Season 1 of Peacemaker was filming news broke that Iwuji would also be joining filmmaker James Gunn in the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie in an undisclosed role. What is now known is Iwuji’s mystery character may be able to go toe-to-toe with some of the strongest heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

When asked by The Hollywood Reporter to describe his Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 character, Iwuji responded, “Powerful. (Laughs.) Extremely powerful. Complex. James and I were talking about it, but he’s certainly one of, if not the most complex characters we’ve seen in the freaking Marvel universe. So he’s deeply complex and deeply powerful, and I hope intriguing. I hope I bring that to it. (Laughs.)”

So this character is both extremely powerful and complex; that does narrow the possibilities down quite a bit, but still leaves an air of mystery to the casting. However, rumors persist Iwuji is taking on the role of the High Evolutionary, a Marvel villain who specializes in experimentation that also created Rocket Raccoon. High Evolutionary definitely ranks as a worthy enough villain to challenge the Guardians, though nothing has been confirmed as far as the casting goes.

Iwuji also discussed how James Gunn asked him to be in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 while they were on the Peacemaker set. “On the day we were shooting the opening dance sequence, I was talking to Jennifer Holland and James came up to us and said, ‘Do you two want to come see the last take of the sequence?’ And then James said, ‘Oh, by the way, I want to talk to you about something.’” He joked how he thought Gunn was going to admit that he got Iwuji confused with actor Chiwetel Ejiofor when it came to casting for Peacemaker. Of course, that was not the case.

“He said, ‘No, actually, I want you to be [Iwuji omits character] in Guardians of the Galaxy 3,’ which I can’t say, sadly, because I can’t say the character. So that’s how it happened. I literally went from dancing on the soundstage to James saying, ‘Come over here, I want you to be in Guardians of the Galaxy 3.’ He actually started by saying, ‘I don’t know what your schedule is, but I would love for you to be in Guardians of the Galaxy 3.’ And I remember it was one of the few genuine times of my life where I was speechless. Normally, you find a way of expressing gratitude and whatever, but I was speechless for several seconds. I just looked at him and I was like, ‘Um, yes, okay.’ So that’s how he offered it. I mean, we still had to go through Kevin Feige and certain people, but apparently, he’d already spoken to them and they liked the idea of it.”

Iwuji continued: “And then a few weeks later, we got together and did the equivalent of a screen test. But it was a screen test for one because he knew he wanted me. He’d written this script four years ago, so it was literally his first chance to hear it. So for me, it was like workshopping a new play. We did these two or three scenes and we spent almost three hours on it. They built a set. There was a camera. It was intense. He put me through the wringer and I left nothing down. We did it. So it was up to him and Kevin and the powers that be to decide if it’s what they wanted, and thankfully, it was what they wanted and here we are. (Laughs.)”

New episodes of Peacemaker debut every Thursday on HBO Max. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 arrives in theaters on May 23, 2023.