HBO MaxLong before Peacemaker premiered, a different actor played Vigilante. Years later, fans are still unclear about exactly why he was recast.
It isn’t uncommon for casting choices to change, whether it’s a last-minute decision or even during a project’s production. For example, Peacemaker was originally written for Dave Bautista, and in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Aragorn’s original actor (Stuart Townsend) was replaced by Viggo Mortensen after just a few days.
Freddie Stroma debuted as Adrian Chase, aka Vigilante, in the first season of Peacemaker. He’s a fan-favorite character; kooky, needy, and a bit of a sociopath who’s also fiercely loyal to his friends.
However, much earlier in production, Stroma didn’t play Vigilante – and nobody knows exactly why he ended up getting cast.
Why was Peacemaker’s Vigilante actor recast?
Prime Video/HBO MaxVigilante was originally played by Chris Conrad in Peacemaker. He filmed five-and-a-half episodes, until he left the show due to “creative differences”, paving the way for Stroma to be cast.
Conrad is notably older than Stroma, born in 1970 (making him 55 today). He had some high-profile roles in the ’90s, such as Eric in The Next Karate Kid and Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat Annihilation, but excluding his role in Patriot, he hasn’t starred in many projects over the past 20 years.
During the Peacemaker podcast, Gunn explained, “We had shot all of Episodes 1 through 5, and we had also shot part of 8. And then we were like, for various reasons, ‘We need to recast the actor.'”
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HBO MaxGunn has never gone into any detail about exactly why he was recast. “I was having anxiety at night because I was like, ‘I love this show more than anything I’ve ever done before,'” he added.
“And one particular part of it wasn’t working as well as it could, and it happened to be everyone’s favorite character in the script.”
In Season 1, there are multiple scenes with Vigilante in full costume – and, “oftentimes [it’s] the original actor,” Gunn said.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Stroma didn’t outline any differences with his approach to Vigilante. However, he said, “To have a crew having to reshoot, looking at you, going, ‘Alright, come on. Do better.’ It’s quite intimidating.”
“So I kind of never really went into any of that. But it was [the same] character. Nothing changed on the page, it was two actors playing the same role,” he added.
The recasting resurfaced on the show’s subreddit, and fans are still curious about what happened behind the scenes. “That seems like something nobody will ever know unless Conrad himself explains it. Gunn isn’t going to air that laundry, there’s no reason to,” one fan wrote.
“He’s got the look for a more comic-accurate Vigilante which the show’s version is pretty far from,” another theorized. “It worked out because Freddie is perfect. But also Conrad is a lot older so I wonder how that would’ve worked with Vigilante’s naive and dorky personality,” a third commented.
In the meantime, read our Peacemaker Season 2 review, find out which questions Season 2 Episode 6 needs to answer, and find out where it ranks on our list of the best superhero TV shows of all time.