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It’s never been a bad time to be a Lee Pace fan, but all of a sudden—some two decades into the tall, handsome, dramatic (yet quirky!) actor’s career—he is seemingly everywhere. With some high-profile projects on the horizon and an impressive list of films and TV already logged on his resume, we’re rounding up our favorites among his sci-fi, fantasy, and horror projects.
Brother Day, Foundation
Across three seasons of the Apple TV+ Isaac Asimov adaptation, Pace has played Brother Day, filling the middle-aged spot in an ever-rotating trio of cloned rulers, all named Cleon. This means that we’ve seen Pace play multiple iterations of Brother Day, including an ambitious deceiver, a campy warmonger, and a lovelorn drug addict. It’s the same man in appearance only, and that allows Pace the chance to explore all the nuances (and hairstyles) that make Cleon such a complex character.
Season three’s shocking climax left Brother Day’s future uncertain, but Apple TV+ surely realizes Pace is a big reason why people tune into Foundation’s sci-fi dramatics, and we think Day will find a way to return.
Roy Walker/Black Bandit, The Fall
Set during the early days of Hollywood, Tarsem’s lush 2006 fantasy imagines that a stuntman (Pace) befriends a young girl when they’re both hospitalized. He entertains her with the epic tale of a bandit (also played by Pace) fighting an evil ruler, with characters in the made-up story portrayed as exaggerated versions of people in their real lives.
Gorgeous locations and visuals are (rightfully) what everyone remembers about The Fall, but amid its celebration of storytelling is a bleaker plot about Pace’s depressed character encouraging the little girl to help him steal morphine. In the years after its release, The Fall has become a cult classic—a designation helped along by the fact that until a 2024 4K restoration by Mubi, it was notoriously difficult to track down in either streaming or physical form.
Ronan the Accuser, Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel
Pace’s Marvel moment came playing Ronan the Accuser, a Kree warlord who menaces the Guardians of the Galaxy misfits and tries to claim one of Thanos’ Infinity Stones for his own use. That doesn’t go so well for him, but Pace’s performance was so memorable—he’s a villain, but he’s far from one-note—that it was a delight to see Ronan return (briefly) for a failed attempt at battling the Skrulls in 2019’s Captain Marvel, which takes place before the events of 2014’s Guardians.
Aaron, Wonderfalls
This 2004 Todd Holland-Bryan Fuller creation only aired a handful of episodes before being cancelled, though its singular season eventually got a DVD release. Perhaps its premise—about Jaye, a Niagara Falls shop clerk (Caroline Dhavernas, who went on to co-star in Fuller’s Hannibal series) who tries to make the world a better place, urged on by the seemingly magical trinkets she sells—was simply too out-there for Fox audiences.
Pace had a supporting role as Jaye’s easygoing brother; his skepticism about her claims of having conversations with inanimate objects erodes over the course of the series and eventually makes him question his own beliefs about the cosmic order of things.
Ned, Pushing Daisies
Pace re-teamed with Fuller for this cult-beloved ABC drama, which ran for two seasons from 2007 to 2009. Pace starred as Ned, a piemaker with the ability to revive the dead with his touch—and then send them back to the beyond with a second touch—who teams up with a private eye on murder cases. He also rediscovers his first love after her untimely murder, then must deal with the agony of never being able to touch her.
Pushing Daisies was equal parts sweet and macabre and favored a fantastical storybook palette in its production design—so it had a lot to love about it. But even with a fun supporting cast (including Kristen Chenoweth) and some memorable guest stars, Pace’s adorable character was really the big draw.
Thranduil, The Hobbit trilogy (An Unexpected Journey, The Desolation of Smaug, The Battle of the Five Armies)
Thranduil, the Elvenking, brings big drama to all three Hobbit movies (particularly the second and third, released in 2013 and 2014). Is he a true villain—or just an icy, elegantly haughty antagonist? Peter Jackson’s mainline Lord of the Rings movies are near-universally accepted as superior to his Hobbit trilogy for many reasons, but when fans tick off things they do like about his Hobbit movies, Lee Pace’s indelible turn as Thranduil is always right near the top.
Greg, Bodies Bodies Bodies
The rare horror outing for Pace is technically a horror comedy, with emphasis on the comedy, about a group of catty friends whose drug-fueled “murder” bash turns unexpectedly bloody. Pace plays the older boyfriend of one of the partiers (played by Bottoms’ Rachel Sennott) and becomes an early suspect—though (spoiler!) he meets his own untimely end pretty early on.
We’d love to see Pace add more horror to his resume; he has a couple of supernatural-themed entries we never actually heard of until compiling this list (2017’s The Keeping Hours is one example), but his ability to seamlessly blend comedy and drama makes him an ideal anchor for any high-tension setting.
Garrett, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2
Here’s your reminder that Pace did indeed pop up in the very last Twilight movie, released in 2012. He played an Alaska-based vampire so notably dreamy he attracted some fan notice. That’s no small feat in a movie that’s mostly about theatrically fraught vampire-on-vampire feuds as well as the very odd growth cycle of Edward and Bella’s freaky newborn daughter.
Phil, Marmaduke
Does Marmaduke count as fantasy? The dogs talk to each other and have exciting off-leash adventures while the human characters (including Marmaduke’s owner, played by Pace) deal with boring life stuff. Marmaduke (voiced by Owen Wilson) and Phil do get involved in a high-stakes, raging-waters rescue at the end that ends up saving not just life and limb but also Phil’s job when a video of it goes viral.
Marmaduke was clearly a choice Pace made as an early career opportunity rather than a creative challenge, but who even remembers this movie? It’s silly, but at least it’s not embarrassing.
Future Roles
Pace fans, prepare to feast! Not only is he in Edgar Wright’s The Running Man as a masked hunter chasing after Glen Powell (in theaters November 14), but he also just joined the cast of the Prime Video animated superhero series Invincible, voicing Grand Regent Thragg in next year’s season four. He also has an as-yet mysterious role in the much-anticipated witchy sequel Practical Magic 2, due out in fall 2026.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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Cheryl Eddy
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