Creator James Gunn reveals how Vince Gilligan's Better Call Saul inspired Peacemaker and the similarity between both titular characters. Created by Gilligan and Peter Gould, the Breaking Bad spin-off serves as both a prequel and sequel of the hit crime drama and explores the origins of its central lawyer before he dons the titular persona in his time as struggling public defender/former con man Jimmy McGill. Better Call Saul has received similar critical acclaim to its predecessor, garnering 39 Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe nods for Bob Odenkirk's lead performance.
Peacemaker similarly serves as a sequel and prequel spin-off to its original project, Gunn's The Suicide Squad, exploring the origin story of John Cena's titular character and his subsequent missions, in which he begins to struggle with the emotional ramifications of his killing. Alongside Cena, the cast for the series features the returns of fellow movie stars Jennifer Holland and Steve Agee as well as DC Extended Universe newcomers Danielle Brooks, Robert Patrick, Freddie Stroma, Chukwudi Iwuji, Annie Chang, Lochlyn Munro and Nhut Le. With Peacemaker finally streaming on HBO Max, Gunn is giving some insight into his first major TV venture.
While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss the DCEU series, Gunn opened up about how Better Call Saul inspired Peacemaker. The creator cites the Breaking Bad prequel's devotion to "take its time" for its story without losing audience interest as a big influence for his show and addressed similarities between the two titular characters. See what Gunn said below:
“It’s the ability to take its time in telling the story. Both Saul and Chris are kind of sad-sack characters who are really good at one thing and then really bad at a lot of other things. So I think it’s really just taking that incredibly smart dialogue, that relaxed nature of grounded life and then mixing that with the other things that I wanted to do with the show. But I love Better Call Saul. I think it’s one of the best shows on TV, if not the best.”
Gunn's comparison of Better Call Saul to Peacemaker is an understandable one given their similarities in working as a spin-off centered on a fan-favorite character from an acclaimed first outing. Though Cena's character received acclaim in The Suicide Squad, there was some skepticism from audiences going into the show's development that he could carry a whole show. Odenkirk's Saul Goodman similarly faced some skepticism from fans upon the announcement of Better Call Saul getting in the works, though this was quickly quelled when the show debuted to rave reviews.
Peacemaker has also broken out to become a hit with critics and audiences alike, currently sitting at a "Certified Fresh" 93 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 85 percent approval rating from audiences. With just three episodes currently airing on HBO Max, audiences are certainly hungry for more of the DCEU series and hoping Gunn gets the season 2 he wants to make. New episodes of Peacemaker air on HBO Max every Thursday.
Source: THR