Chris Pratt shocked everyone when he made the jump from playing lovable doofus Andy Dwyer in Parks and Rec to the hard-bodied Marvel Cinematic Universe hero “Star-Lord” (aka Peter Quill), leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy. From there, however, we’ve seen Pratt break into a variety of new feature film and TV roles, and a couple of them are also heroes caught up in some kind of war (cosmic or otherwise).
One role that Pratt has shined in is playing Lieutenant Commander James Reece, an elite special ops soldier and leader in Amazon Prime Video’s series The Terminal List. The troubled and memory-addled soldier went through deep personal losses and pains during Season 1 of the show, uncovering a conspiracy against him and his men, while a brain tumor threatened to end his life, even if assassins couldn’t.
Now, The Terminal List Season 2 finds Reece facing the existential crisis of what to do with a life he didn’t expect to live. That’s a pretty far cry from the kind of lighthearted hijinks (or even the dramatic moments) we’ve seen from Star-Lord.
When ComicBook’s Law Sharma spoke with Chris Pratt at the press day for The Terminal List Season 2, he asked the actor if playing different militaristic characters (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Terminal List, The Tomorrow War, Jurassic World) came with some carryover when it came to skills like gun play.
“Man, that’s a great question because over all of this time, the key that we’ve been trying to do is root this [show] in some real semblance of reality, to make this authentic, to make it as real as possible,” Pratt explained. “That these men are, in fact, not superheroes; they’re incredibly gifted, they’re incredibly skilled, but they’re fallible, flawed and vulnerable human beings, you know? And so it’s interesting that you asked that question.”
As he continued to explain, Pratt looks at Star-Lord as an example of the antithesis of what his Terminal List character should be; he even hinted that it would be a change in approach to any future superhero character he might play, in either MCU or the new DCU franchise.
“I think it’s a great example of what I would probably try not to do if I was going to continue to play a superhero in some way… Because superheroes… have a heightened sense of reality and can be fantastical. And oftentimes when special operators are played, they are played as though they’re superheroes. And that was something that we tried to avoid.”
Seeing Chris Pratt play a more grounded and serious superhero would be a trip after years of seeing him as Peter Quill; but then, didn’t we once say the same thing about Andy Dwyer playing a Marvel hero?
The Terminal List Season 2 is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Do you like Chris Pratt better in a military role or a superhero role? Let us know in the comments!
