DC fans were delighted recently when the character roll call for James Gunn's Suicide Squad dropped. It boasts a myriad of awesome characters and talent to boot, including Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Idris Elba as Bloodsport, Pete Davidson as Blackguard, and John Cena as Peacemaker, just to name a few.
Not long after the internet rejoiced at what seems to be an extraordinary film, it was announced that Peacemaker would receive his own TV spinoff. Few details have been revealed about the project, but some curious things are already known.
Who Is Peacemaker?
Peacemaker is perhaps one of the strangest characters committed to paper. His origin story is what makes him so strange. The character first appeared back in the 60s, in the pages of Charlton Comics, however, when the company dissolved during the 80s, DC Comics acquired the rights. The character's first and most popular iteration is known as Christopher Smith. He's the son of an Austrian industrialist who is revealed to be a secret Nazi war criminal. He takes his life in front of Christopher, and naturally, this had adverse effects on his mental disposition.
Smith grows up, joins the Army, and starts following the instructions from hallucinations of his father, which leads him to destroy an entire village of innocent people. He goes to prison but is paroled and is recruited to be part of a government program dubbed Project: Peacemaker. In the end, the project is shut down, but Christopher returns home to Austria where he uses his family fortune to found the Pax Pax Institute charity, advocating for the victims of war crimes. All the while, behind the scenes, he resumes Project: Peacemaker, this time with far nobler goals. However, his noble quest is constantly hampered by his growing mental issues. In a nutshell, Peacemaker is a man so driven by the goal of peace, that he'll do anything to achieve it, including brutally killing for it.
HBO Max's Peacemaker
Just a year after John Cena makes his first appearance as Peacemaker in James Gunn's upcoming The Suicide Squad, the WWE wrestler turned actor will make his small screen debut as the character on HBO Max.
Announced back in September, Peacemaker is an action-comedy following a man who believes in peace at any cost, regardless of how many he has to slay to achieve it.
Who Will Direct The Peacemaker Show?
The man behind the Guardians of The Galaxy films, and the upcoming Suicide Squad sequel, James Gunn, will take the director's chair for several of the episodes and will write all of them.
Joining him in the executive producer role is Pete Safran, and John Cena himself has also been recruited to serve as a co-executive producer.
Genre, Look And Feel
It was a surprise and a delight for many fans of DC's lesser-known characters that Peacemaker, of all characters, would become the first DCEU character to receive his own series. If one examines the hilarious, tongue-in-cheek logo for the show and considers Cena's comments about Peacemaker being a sort of "douchey Captain America," it's evident that the Peacemaker show will be packed with hilarity.
That being said, while comedic in nature, fans can more than likely expect the show to be action-packed, gory, and bloody, with a possible TV-MA rating, as the upcoming The Suicide Squad film is set to be a hard R-rated film.
John Cena's Peacemaker's Role In Suicide Squad 2 & DCEU Future
At this stage, it's unclear if John Cena has signed with DC and Warner Bros. However, if one considers just how fast the studios gave the go-ahead for a Peacemaker show on HBO Max, one can assume that they're as pumped about the Peacemaker character as James Gunn is.
If this is indeed the case, John Cena might just be looking at a really long relationship with DC and Warner Bros. That's if his character even survives the events of The Suicide Squad. However, when questioned on Twitter about this, Gunn downplayed the assumption, stating that the HBO Max show doesn't necessarily confirm whether Cena's character would make it out alive or not.
Peacemaker Supporting Cast
Joining John Cena in Peacemaker is Jennifer Holland, who will reprise her role as Emilia Harcourt.
Also joining the James Gunn show are Steve Agee as John Economos, Orange is the New Black's alum Danielle Brooks, Robert Patrick, and Chris Conrad.
Peacemaker's Villain
As mentioned above, Chris Conrad has joined the cast of Peacemaker. He'll be playing the role of Vigilante, the antagonist of the show.
Vigilante aka Greg Saunders debuted in Action Comics back in 1941 and is proficient in all forms of hand-to-hand combat, a master of the lariat, and an expert marksman.
Other Confirmed Characters
Robert Patrick will play the role of Peacemaker's father, Christopher Smith, and will appear as a series regular in a one-season deal.
Danielle Brooks is on board to play Leota Adebayo, another series regular, who has been described as "smart, drive, full-figured and capable". It seems that Adebayo might take the form of a love interest.
Peacemaker Production
Principal photography for Peacemaker started back in November 2020, after James Gunn entered into a mandatory two-week quarantine.
Hopefully, seeing as though Peacemaker started filming so soon after its announcement, fans might get a first look at the series before The Suicide Squad hits theaters and HBO Max. One can hope.
Peacemaker Release Date
HBO Max has confirmed that the production will continue during January 2021 with the first season of Peacemaker consisting of eight episodes, all written by Gunn. At this stage an official release date is unknown, but fans can expect to watch the premiere sometime during 2022.