Exclusive: Chukwudi Iwuji And The Secrets That His Character Murn Carries In HBO Max Series ‘Peacemaker’
Now airing on HBO Max is Episode 7 to its series Peacemaker, written and directed by James Gunn. PEACEMAKER explores the continuing story of the character that John Cena reprises in the aftermath of Gunn’s 2021 film “The Suicide Squad” – a compellingly vainglorious man who believes in peace at any cost, no matter how many people he has to kill to get it.
The series stars John Cena as Peacemaker, Danielle Brooks as Adebayo, Freddie Stroma as Vigilante, Jennifer Holland as Harcourt, Steve Agee as Economos, Chukwudi Iwuji as Murn and Robert Patrick as Auggie Smith.
It was revealed recently that Chukwudi Iwuji’s Murn is actually a Butterfly and so Blackfilmandtv.com caught up with him to discuss the big reveal and how he came to be part of this amazing comic book series.
Now that several episodes have aired for Peacemaker, let’s go back a bit for fans who are now discovering you. How did you get attracted to this role?
Chukwudi Iwuji: It was your classic thing. I got an email from my agents with these very mysterious sides with no clues whatsoever, but from James Gunn, and I looked at the sides and I said to myself "Oh, my God, they're gonna go get Lance Reddick for this." I mean, he's perfect for this. Why am I wasted my time, but I started reading them and they were so hilarious that I said to my wife, “You know what, let's just tape it. Let's do it." This is gold, the material. So we did one take and I sent it off, never thinking I'd hear anything about it. And then lo and behold, James loved the take. And that was that. It was wonderful because he seemed to like what I brought to it. And I just felt like, "Oh, I get this guy." There was something about James's writing, which is very specific. That made me go, "I know where this guy's coming from." And luckily, my ideas match. Well, they didn't match. Apparently, he told me that I was completely different from what he was looking for. But he wanted to use what I gave. So that's how it happened.
How much did you know about the character? And just about comics in general? Were you a comic book fan?
Chukwudi Iwuji: I knew this is a made up character. This character does not exist in the DC universe at all. So James made this character up. So of course, I knew nothing about him. Apart from the movies, the first Suicide Squad, I didn't really know,Task Force X and all that stuff. So no, it was all new to me. But I read comics growing up, all of them Marvel and DC. I've always been a comic book fan. And I love the movies and obviously loved the Batman in the DC world, the Batman movie, I love the Joker movie. So and of course, I love James Gunn from the Guardians of the Galaxy. So I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to be part of.
How would you best describe it without going to what we've seen so far?
Chukwudi Iwuji: Taciturn, focused, driven, dangerous, and enigmatic. And I think I'd use all of those, and with a temper. You don't want to mess with his temper,. He has a very dark past also. So he has a dark past in Black Ops. He has a lot of demons. That sort of rounds him up nicely.
The show is mixed with fun and laughs and some drama. How was working with this cast? When you see the script as you get them, do you feel that you need to go in there and add in your own funny bones?
Chukwudi Iwuji: I had to resist my funny bones because, as you see, Murn is definitely the straight guy in the group and have to keep it together. I don't want to compete with these guys John Cena. Freddy, Danielle, and Jen. They seem to be very good at improv and stuff. So I don't want to start mixing it up too much with them. In fact, I come from a background of Shakespeare and classical work where you say what's on the page. You don't go improvising Shakespeare. So I was very happy to let them do the improv, because James likes to let things just run for a while he keeps the camera rolling and lets people iimprov and throws in suggestions. So that was fun to see. The hard part was keeping a straight face because Murn has a straight face through most scenes. I'm not allowed to join in with the jokes. So that was hard for me, the actor not cracking up and I cracked up a lot. There's a lot of wasted footage because I laughed at the wrong times.
Now, obviously, from those who have seen the episodes already, we now know Murn is a butterfly, how long into the script. Did you know this was going to happen?
Chukwudi Iwuji: I knew from the start. They told me what my arc was. So that was exciting for me to know that was coming but I never play the arc. I think is a very dangerous thing to play with a wink of knowing what's coming. It's moment to moment. So I really enjoyed playing just moment to moment this is Murn. This Is What You See. This Is What You Get. So that by the time the surprise comes, it's a real surprise. So if there any clues about it, it's in the writing or something, and definitely not in my performance. I really believe in playing it moment to moment.
What we're going to get later on when it comes to Murn?
Chukwudi Iwuji: You're going to definitely get more more of a backstory about how he came to be this butterfly, not so much about his dark OPS past, I think that's going to live very much in in the imagination. But what you will definitely get is his love for humanity and his desire to make this job. He cares so much about what he's doing. I think that's going to be very apparent. Then it's up to you as the audience to decide which side you follow.
How much fun how you're having playing this role?
Chukwudi Iwuji: I had the most fun. It was criminal. Sometimes Wilson, I thought that they pay me to do this, it was so much fun. Then it comes from top down from James down to the producers down to the whole crew. When the crew are behind the project, there's a subtle difference on the crew who really believes in a project and it changes the energy in the room every day you come into work. And so I had the most fun I've ever had. I feel very grateful about it. I'm glad that fun is being expressed on the screen when people watch the show also.
Can confirm yes or no, will you be in Guardians of the Galaxy 3?
Chukwudi Iwuji: I'm definitely in Guardians of the Galaxy three. I think the research has come out. James has come out. I've come out. Everyone knows I'm going to be in it. I'm having an amazing time filming it right now because I'm in the middle of filming it. I think it's gonna blow people away. James definitely pushes me as a director, certainly in Guardians. He hired me for a reason and he's pushing me to make sure I don't leave anything. I believe it all there on the screen. So it's a joy to work with him.