Guardians of the Galaxy 3’s High Evolutionary actor on shaking up Marvel

It didn’t take long for actor Chukwudi Iwuji to realize the High Evolutionary — the Marvel Comics villain he portrays in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — was kind of bonkers.

“From the first page of reading the script, I was like, [nervous voice] Oh. Okay, let’s go.,” he told Polygon in a video interview.

It was just a movie script. The High Evolutionary, real name Herbert Wyndham, is the guy in Marvel Comics who created a cow person servant to be the midwife for the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch’s birth. He also de-evolved into primordial ooze by design.

Iwuji explained that he was required to tread a thin line between giving the High Evolutionary a menacing presence and the explosive presence of a comic book mad science at the same. “It was written in a way that it was clear that I had to ground it,” he said, “But also not be afraid of the theatricality of the character. And in fact, not just not be afraid of it, but to embrace it.”

A veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, Iwuji naturally looked to Shakespeare’s most dramatic kings — Henry IV, Richard III, Lear — as guiding stars.

“[The High Evolutionary]It’s grand. People call him ‘Sire.’ He walks around with a beautifully tapered, almost Issey Miyake-like purple costume,” Iwuji said. “And he’s he’s worshiped by those around him. “And he’s he is worshipped by those around him. [laughs], the grandness was very evident to me from the start.”

To Iwuji, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s sets were just another kind of costuming. This High Evolutionary, who is a god, has his own flagship. Inside, you’ll find his grandiose office, with its shiny surfaces and floating cubes. There’s also a giant desk, with a large pedestal, made out of floating cubicles, as well as a window that allows him to see all of his creations.

“Beth Mickel designed an amazing set,” Iwuji said. “And for me, just walking into it [felt like] ‘This is my lair.’ It was actually there, the space, the grandness of it, it’s like putting on a costume — you put on a costume and you suddenly know how you’ve got to walk and how you’re going to carry yourself. It’s the same thing when you walk into a real space. The space becomes yours. It’s a gift to do it that way. It did make life a lot more easy to play with an actual practical set.”

I think we can all agree that every supervillain deserves a good lair — how else will they get enough scenery to chew?