Peacemaker star Chukwudi Iwuji on his character's big reveal, 'explosive' season finale, and Guardians Vol. 3

Warning: This episode contains spoilers for the most recent episode of Peacemaker.

On Wednesday's episode of James Gunn's HBO Max superhero show Peacemaker, we found out a lot about actor Chukwudi Iwuji's Clemson Murn, the leader of the black ops team whose members include John Cena's titular anti-hero. The headline news? Murn isn't actually Murn. More specifically, Murn's body is being puppeteered by one of the show's alien "butterflies" who is attempting to prevent his fellow extraterrestrials from taking over the world.

Did Iwuji know from the start the true nature of his character?

"Yeah, absolutely," says the Nigerian-British actor over the phone from Atlanta, where he is shooting Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. "It was one of those things where, very rare for television, we got [the scripts for] all eight episodes straight away. One of my first discussions with James and Pete Safran (Peacemaker executive producer) was, this is what Murn is, Murn is a butterfly. But I don't believe in playing the arc, it diminishes the drama, so I played things just moment by moment. If there were any clues that Murn was a butterfly, it would be in the writing and not my performance, that was the goal I set myself."

Below, Iwuji talks more about the show, the season's two remaining episodes, and reuniting with Gunn on Guardians Vol 3.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: To be clear, you haven't been playing Murn as someone being controlled by an alien in his brain?

CHUKWUDI IWUJI: No, there's something very immediate about Murn, his delivery is very immediate, his presence is immediate, his flashes of temper are immediate, there's so much to play in the moment, which is the joy of being in a scene, that I never once thought of doing things in terms of a butterfly. Now, in the writing, he gets blown up in episode 3 and he still survives. You've got to question that, you know. [Laughs] But that's in the writing. I just didn't want to give any clues away.

It says a lot about the weirdness of the show that two members of Murn's team already knew that he is a butterfly and don't really seem that concerned.

[Laughs] That's the world of James Gunn, really, and the world of this show. It's a different mindset. Usually when you're writing a piece of fiction, the big drama, the big reveal is that there are aliens, but we start this show already in that world, that universe, where we know aliens exist. So I guess different people react in different ways to things.

How did you get involved in the show?

One afternoon, I received an email from my agent with these mysterious sides, only three pages as it happened. Remember episode 1 when we first meet Peacemaker, we come in to his trailer? That was it, but they hid some names and stuff to keep it secret. I remember looking at the breakdown for the character and the description for the character was so not me. I went, oh, they're just going to get Lance Reddick or something. [Laughs] But I started reading the material, and in those three pages there was so much comedy, so much humor, and, more importantly for me, James had done this thing which good writers do, which is direct the actor through dialog. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it and I thought, this is just too much fun not to do, even if I never get it. So my wife and I set up a camera, and we sent the first take we did, and, as it turns out, I wasn't what James was looking for, but he decided that he wanted what I did, and that's how I became involved with the whole thing.

You've acted with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Britain's National Theatre, the Public Theater. I spoke to Steve Agee, who couldn't believe he was in the same cast as such a serious actor. Were there moments shooting the show early on when you wondered what on earth you'd gotten yourself into?

[Laughs] Absolutely! My first day, I had to do that scene where we're hiding the cameras in the trees, with Steve Agee as it happens, and I am not a DIY guy at all. I don't own a drill. It was a nightmare. You have a crew of a hundred people watching you, it was freezing cold, you're up a ladder, working an electric drill. I think at one point I set it to reverse instead of forward. It was a nightmare. I was pretty sure they were going to fire me. I was like, there won't be a car waiting for me at the end of the day. But, that aside, the only time I was like, 'I'm a little but out of my depth' was when the improvising would happen. Because John Cena's a master at that, he'll just keep going, and James will keep the camera going, and John was just improvising, and Steve Agee himself does stand-up. I'd [think], I hope nobody is expecting me to match these guys because, as you said, my background is Shakespeare, Chekhov and Ibsen. You know, we don't improvise those guys. [Laughs]

I'm guessing Shakespeare and Ibsen don't require much "drill acting" either.

[Laughs] No, none of that stuff.

How do you keep such a straight face when you're shooting the show?

I don't. You don't see the blooper reel. But you will, you will.

Can you tease the last couple of episodes of season 1?

I would say a lot has to be resolved in just two more episodes and a lot is resolved in two more episodes with total chaos, hilarity, surprise. And of course what James Gunn does really well is surprise you with the amount of heart he can put in the middle of chaos. It's very explosive. The last two episodes are extremely explosive and hilarious, but you will not be disappointed with the humanity he somehow manages to instill in the middle of all that.

You're currently working with Gunn again on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. How is that going?

It's going great. I'm trying to wrap my head around it still. I saw the first Guardians in Times Square in 2014 with a friend of mine. I was watching it as an audience member, never once entertaining the idea of being part of the universe. Exactly the same thing with Guardians 2. To be finding myself in 3 is quite extraordinary. From [being] an audience member to being involved in this project that I found so moving and hilarious and brilliant eight years ago is just mind-boggling.

One more question. I'm a huge Doctor Who fan and I know you appeared on the show. What do you remember about that experience?

It was "The Impossible Astronaut," I believe it was called. That was the first time I met Karen Gillan and we're working again together here after doing Doctor Who all those years ago. I remember [thinking], wait, I'm on the set of Doctor Who! Matt Smith was hilarious. It was fun. I had a good time doing that. To this day, I can be playing Henry VI at the Royal Shakespeare Company, I can be doing Richard III in Naples, and the group of people waiting for autographs, there will be a handful of them with my Doctor Who picture. That's how big that show is.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Watch the trailer for Peacemaker below.

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Peacemaker star Chukwudi Iwuji on his character's big reveal, 'explosive' season finale, and Guardians Vol. 3

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