Fans of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are gearing up for the highly-anticipated theatrical release this weekend, but there’s one piece of the storyline that everyone will be watching through the spaces between their fingers as they throw their hands over their faces to brace for impact.
The High Evolutionary is the villain in this chapter of the story, and will undeniably be the most hated villain in MCU history. Now, we know you’re saying, “but Thanos…” and yes, we remember his snap-happy fingers and how they devastated all of us, but The High Evolutionary is taking things a step further: He’s inexplicably cruel to animals.
Chukwudi Iwuji is the actor responsible for bringing the realm’s most evil villain to life, and he had a lot to reason with as he took on the role. Iwuji spoke with Comicbook.com about the precise moment during filming when he says he realized he was “going to Hell” for this.
“What was helpful was that I was working with Sean Gunn a lot as opposed to any animals, so I was interacting with another actor, but I have to say, the first time I saw — I was doing an ADR or something and I saw a scene with Rocket’s eyes, I literally saw my dog’s eyes… I saw his face, and I was like, ‘I am going to Hell’ when I saw that. It really helped that when I was dealing with the animals, I wasn’t really dealing with any animals, because it would have been much harder that way. My agent couldn’t talk to me properly for like two days after a screening. She went home and hugged her dog, and was like, ‘I don’t know how I can talk to you.'”
Animal cruelty is something that no one handles well, no matter what entertainment genre you’re watching — no one wants to see an animal hurt. No one wants to see an evil force take its wrath out on a helpless creature, and no one wants to see an animal die.
You can even check out a website to make sure you’re fully prepared before sitting down to watch something: doesthedogdie.com. If it’s not an already bookmarked tab in your browser, we’ll wait while you ensure it becomes one now.
The fact that Iwuji had such a hard time coming to terms with his character’s evil highlights that he’s got a beautiful heart underneath it all, but that couldn’t be the highlight of his character. No, The High Evolutionary thinks of animals as creatures to experiment on, which was hard for everyone on set.
A place of solace for Iwuji was that he did very little interacting with animals, and of course, none were harmed in the making of the film, but these actors get very into character, and he had to show no remorse for what scenes would play out when the film hits theaters.
We’re sending Iwuji a big hug, and, despite how much we’ll hate The High Evolutionary when we see him on the big screen this weekend, we’ll remember that he’s a guy who saw his own dog’s face during some of the scenes, and that’s a heart we can champion for.
Guardians Vol. 3 hits theaters on May 5, and we’ll repeat it — bring tissues for this one, or you’ll be crying into your Twizzlers before the movie’s end.