Guardians of the Galaxy 3 director praises new villain's "truly explosive performance"

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James Gunn is excited for fans to meet Chukwudi Iwuji's new cosmic villain

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is on the way, and James Gunn can't wait for audiences to see Peacemaker star Chudwudi Iwuji's performance.

Iwuji plays black ops agent Clemson Murn on Gunn's Peacemaker series, and made headlines last fall after joining the cast of the third installment in a role that "most every big name actor in Hollywood wanted."

Gunn retweeted an interview with Iwuji for Discussing Film, saying, "Wait till you see Chuk murder it in #GotGVol3 with a truly explosive performance."

Though the role has yet to be revealed, many have speculated that Iwuji will play the High Evolutionary, joining Will Poulter's Adam Warlock as another main antagonist. The High Evolutionary, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, first appeared in The Mighty Thor issue no. 134 as an evolved human superhuman intelligence, telepathy, telekinesis, precognition, and cosmic awareness. The former Oxford university student was expelled for experimenting with genetic manipulation – and later becomes an all-powerful universe-threatening villain.

"Powerful. Extremely powerful. Complex," Iwuju previously said about the mystery role. "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."

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is out May 5, 2023. Hopefully, we find out more about Iwuji's top secret character before then. In the meantime, check out our list of new superhero movies on the way from DC, Marvel, and beyond.

Lauren Milici
Lauren Milici
Senior Entertainment Writer

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.