Warning: Contains spoilers for Peacemaker episode 6.
Peacemaker actor Chukwudi Iwuji reveals when he learned Clemson Murn was a butterfly in the DCEU series. In James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, John Cena’s Christopher Smith, a.k.a. Peacemaker betrayed members of Task Force X to cover up Project Starfish. The spin-off series, Peacemaker, sees him and A.R.G.U.S. attempt to thwart an alien invasion via Operation: Butterfly. The series’ cast includes Cena, Jennifer Holland, Danielle Brooks, Robert Patrick, Freddie Stoma, Nhut Le, and Iwuji as Clemson Murn, the increasingly sensitive mercenary leading the team.
In episode 4 of Peacemaker, it is revealed that Murn is a butterfly himself. At the end of episode 5, Leota Adebayo (Brooks) uses Peacemaker’s x-ray helmet to learn the truth about Murn, which led to him chasing her out into the parking lot. While that interaction led audiences to believe Murn is evil, the latest episode, “Murn After Reading,” revealed him to be a good butterfly, who wants to stop his fellow E.T.s from dominating the Earth.
As Peacemaker heads into its final two weeks, Iwuji recently spoke to TV Insider about Murn’s big butterfly twist. While many assumed Murn became a butterfly in episode 3, the character has presumably been an alien since the beginning of the series. Or, at the very least, Iwuji knew his character was a butterfly from the start. Read the full quote below:
"I've known from the start," Iwuji said. "One of the luxuries of working on TV with James Gunn is that he gives you all the episodes before you start shooting! In very early conversations with James and Peter Safran, one of the producers, that was part of my attraction to playing Murn: This huge, wonderful reveal. He has this secret."
"They knew from the beginning," Iwuji added of his castmates. "Everyone got the scripts, everyone knew it, yeah. But we were all joined in the knowledge of playing each scene as it comes. We all bought into that, instead of giving sly looks or moments. It was all about scene to scene and forgetting about that until we had to deal with it…. I'm very conscious of never playing the arc of a character, that luxury of knowing what is going to happen and playing that in real-time to the audience.”
Iwuji went on to say that any clues hinting at the true nature of his character or the butterflies earlier on are in Gunn’s writing. Given Murn’s monologue about being more in touch with his feelings in the pilot, it’s safe to say he’s been a butterfly for the whole series. While the Murn twist previously made the butterflies' intentions mysterious, Peacemaker’s latest episode confirmed that Murn is (seemingly) the lone, renegade butterfly working against Goff’s invasion.
Peacemaker’s sixth episode was truly the series’ wildest yet, ending with the entire police stations being taken over by butterflies, Peacemaker being framed for all of the crimes that have been committed, and Auggie Smith (Patrick) suiting up as the White Dragon to go kill his son. Not even critics know what ultimately happens to A.R.G.U.S. and Murn as Gunn refused to send out the season 1 finale. What audiences do know is that Gunn and Iwuji’s working relationship will continue as the actor has been cast in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is currently in production. Peacemaker's first six episodes are available to stream on HBO Max with new episodes releasing on Thursdays.
Source: TV Insider
