James Gunn Wrote A Peacemaker Character For Lance Reddick To Play

Actor Lance Reddick's sudden death in 2023 was blindsiding. He was an always reliably great performer who frequently played cool and authoritative characters. His breakout part was playing Baltimore police lieutenant Cedric Daniels in the lifelike urban drama "The Wire," but he was just at home in genre films and TV.

Reddick's screen persona had the air of immortality; one of his last roles was playing Zeus in the Disney+ "Percy Jackson" series. Sadly, he's only immortal in our memories and on screen.

One person who wanted to work with Reddick, but never got the chance to, was James Gunn. On the latest "Peacemaker" podcast episode, Gunn revealed that he wrote the character of Clemson Murn in "Peacemaker" season 1 with Reddick in mind to play him:

"[Reddick] was supposed to play the role, but he had problems with another show, so Chukwudi [Iwuji] came in and he played the character of Murn."

Gunn cited this to counter guest Michael Rooker's claim that if a writer writes a character with a specific actor in mind then doesn't get them cast, they'll always think of the original actor.

"[Iwuji] just absolutely owned the role," Gunn continued, "and changed [Murn] from what I initially thought of him as."

In "Peacemaker" season 1, Murn is team leader of Operation: Butterfly, or the four man team that recruits Peacemaker (John Cena) to stop an alien invasion. The aliens, Butterflies, are mantis-like parasites that can burrow into human bodies and puppeteer them, a la "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" or the Yeerks from "Animorphs." Why is Murn leading the team? Because he's a Butterfly himself, albeit one who opposes his species' plans for world domination.

Murn is the straight man of "Peacemaker" season 1; as the leader of a team that includes Peacemaker and Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), he has to be. Whenever the team is getting off-track onto a pointless conversation, Murn is the one who breaks it up. This fits Reddick's typecasting; he could be funny (see his guest appearance on "The Eric Andre Show") but there was no one who could better play "Black straight man" like him.

Sometimes, Reddick was funny because of how serious he was. See his role as Charon, the concierge with an unbreakable calm, in the "John Wick" films. Charon is a consummate professional; the most reaction you can get out of him is a raised eyebrow, even though he manages a hotel for assassins. 

As for Iwuji making Murn his own like Gunn said: Reddick's characters, as seen by Charon, were often cool and calm. That attitude fit his stern face and deep voice, and I can see how it would've played into the twist that Murn was an alien (i.e. he's so unemotional because he's not even human). As played by Iwuji, though, Murn is on edge and exasperated by his team's eccentricities. It's hard to picture Reddick playing the part with the same short fuse.

Reddick turning down "Peacemaker" had a domino effect; after Iwuji's performance on "Peacemaker," Gunn cast him in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" as the High Evolutionary, a villain so evil not even Iwuji can defend him. Iwuji amped up qualities from his performance as Murn. The High Evolutionary is always losing his temper and screaming, but he's so vicious that his petulance only makes him scarier.

Losing Lance Reddick could've been a huge loss for "Peacemaker," but Chukwudi Iwuji made it merely a road not taken.

"Peacemaker" is streaming on HBO Max.