The Suicide Squad director James Gunn has recently hinted that John Cena will probably not be getting an upgraded costume in his upcoming Peacemaker spinoff series. Former WWE wrestler Cena is currently set to make his debut in the role of the DC supervillain in Gunn’s The Suicide Squad this August. Cena’s Peacemaker, once described by Gunn as “the world’s biggest douchebag”, is an anti-hero who firmly believes in achieving peace at any cost - even if that cost involves ruthlessly killing multiple people.
While the upcoming release of The Suicide Squad is now only a few short weeks away, Gunn is currently busy working on the Peacemaker spinoff series for HBO Max. Gunn originally began work on writing Peacemaker during last year’s pandemic lockdown, “mostly for fun, as [he] didn’t believe it was ever going to happen”. However, within a month of Gunn publicly revealing his lockdown pastime, HBO Max swooped in to order an 8-episode season for their streaming service and filming officially began in January this year.
With filming on the Peacemaker spinoff is preparing to wrap up next month, Gunn has been busy fielding fan questions via his social media channels. When one fan asked “will Peacemaker get a new uniform in the series?”, Gunn’s response was brief and typically sharp-witted. Replying “what do you think he’s made of money?”, the answer would seem to be a resounding no. Check out the original exchange below:
Over the past few months, Cena has been spotted numerous times in his Peacemaker costume, even taking to wearing it for interviews completely unrelated to either The Suicide Squad movie or its spinoff series. Despite Idris Elba’s The Suicide Squad character Bloodsport describing Peacemaker’s look as “a guy that wears a toilet seat on his head”, Cena has evidently become quite enamored with his costume and would probably resist any attempts by Gunn to change it. The former wrestler even once joked that “it’s made of an overly comfy cotton blend. Its colors are very subdued avant garde mixed into an unpretentious nouveau riche statement that screams “which way to liberty beach?!”.
Jokes aside, with the superhero genre currently reaching never-before-seen heights, seeing characters upgrade their costumes has become an expected trope in any comic book film or TV series. Not only does it provide a visual clue to a character’s ongoing development, but it also assists studios to produce and market the associated merchandising. Gunn himself has done this by providing Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn with a very different look to her previous two film appearances, but it would seem that he’s largely content to have Cena continue to wear his favorite shiny, chrome toilet seat.
Source: James Gunn
