Who Plays Ronan In Guardians Of The Galaxy?

With James Gunn's saga finally coming full circle with the release of "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3," fans will no doubt get nostalgic over the filmmaker's unique writing and direction of the beloved MCU franchise entry. The film series, of course, kicked off in 2014 with the original "Guardians of the Galaxy," where an eclectic group of misfits assembled to do just what the title promised: be Guardians of the Galaxy.

Made up of Peter Quill-Star Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), and Groot (Vin Diesel), the Guardians' first formidable enemy in the trilogy came with the menacing Kree warlord, Ronan the Accuser. Played by 6-foot-5 actor, Lee Pace, the towering Ronan is eventually defeated by Star-Lord in the form of a dance-off, where the Guardians leader sings the Five Stairsteps' classic, "O-o-h Child," at the end of the climactic Battle of Xandar scene. The impromptu performance of the feel-good hit from 1970 is so baffling to Ronan that it distracts the supervillain long enough so Drax can blast his Warhammer to free up the Power Stone encased within. When Star-Lord is able to secure the stone and withstand the power it exudes, he turns it on Ronan and blows him up. 

Pace, of course, wears Ronan's elaborate wardrobe and head attire throughout the film and the actor's face is further obscured by the character's blue makeup which is complemented by large black highlights around his purple eyes, as well as his cheeks and chin. Underneath Ronan's chiseled visage, though, is a very recognizable actor whose big breakthrough came in an Emmy Award-winning network series in 2007.

It almost seems like Pace's involvement in the eccentric world of "Guardians of the Galaxy" was preordained, given the nature of his starring role in creator Bryan Fuller's and director Barry Sonnenfeld's vibrant and colorful comedy fantasy series, "Pushing Daisies," on ABC from 2007 to 2009.

In "Pushing Daisies," Pace plays Ned, a talented pie maker with the gift of reanimating the dead with his mere touch — which is also a curse of sorts since another person must die if the awakened person lives longer than a minute. But when Ned brings his murdered childhood sweetheart, Charlotte "Chuck" Charles (Anna Friel) back from the dead, he's faced with a literal life-or-death dilemma: If he touches any person he's brought back to life again, they will die forever.

While "Pushing Daisies" lasted a mere two seasons, Pace's time on the series continues to live on in the form of his bright memories of the production and the actors involved — including Kristen Chenoweth, Chi McBride, Ellen Greene, and Swoosie Kurtz. '"Pushing Daisies' is something that I'm so proud to have been a part of," Pace told Looper in an exclusive interview. "What a unique project it was. What a unique cast. What a unique experience it was. It marks a very special time in my life, so I couldn't be more proud to have been a part of it."

Long before "The Lord of the Rings" was released as a novel there was "The Hobbit," and luckily for filmmaker Peter Jackson, he was able to explore the prequel story about Middle-earth with three more large-scale fantasy films after the "Rings" trilogy made its blockbuster run in theaters. Pace was among the actors to score a key role in all three movies in "The Hobbit" trilogy, where he embodied the Elven King, Thranduil. Introduced to audiences years before in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy was the hero, Legolas (Orlando Bloom), who is part of Thranduil's lineage as the Elven King's son.

In an interview with Movie Fanatic, Pace said he was a fan of the creations of J.R.R. Tolkien going into his work on the films, having read "The Hobbit" as a child and "The Lord of the Rings" as a teen. Obviously not knowing at the time that he would one day play Thranduil, Pace said that he wishes he "could have taken a snapshot of my imagination to see how it was different and how it was the same."

"I wish I could remember how I pictured the story — the way I pictured my character, for example," Pace recalled. "Now, it's been replaced by the way that Peter Jackson imagined it. The thing that we came up with together with the character ... it's such a collaborative process making that character come to life."

More than a dozen years after his horror film debut in the 2009 horror thriller, "Possession," Pace jumped back into the genre with "Bodies Bodies Bodies" — a critically acclaimed indie release with an ensemble cast that included Pete Davidson, Amandla Stenberg, and Maria Bakalova. Set in a house on a sprawling coastal estate where a rich group of women in their 20s are throwing a hurricane party. Pace is the odd man out as Greg, a much older man who is dating one of the women. The May-December relationship becomes the least of everybody's worries, though, when the powerful storm knocks out power and people at the party start dying one by one.

Turning into a whodunnit murder mystery — and part social satire that takes aim at overprivileged and out-of-touch members of Generation Z — everyone at the party is suspect in "Bodies Bodies Bodies." But unlike an Agatha Christie novel, "Bodies Bodies Bodies" gets bloodier, bloodier, and bloodier as more guests meet their grisly fates.

The film earned an impressive $37,776 per-screen average in its opening weekend in limited release at the box office and went on to score more than $14 million worldwide. And while "Bodies Bodies Bodies" didn't earn nearly the amount as blockbusters like "Guardians of the Galaxy," Pace believed the movie had some legs for the long-term. As such, Pace told Looper he was hoping that "Bodies Bodies Bodies" will eventually achieve a cult status akin to "Pushing Daisies," noting how he was "awfully proud" of the film. "I find it very entertaining and intelligent, so I hope the audience has a good time with it," Pace added. "We'll see what happens."