Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Suicide Squad.
While it's played as a shocking part of The Suicide Squad's ending, the Peacemaker twist that kicks off the climactic battle scene in the destroyed Jotunheim was actually spoiled early in the marketing. In fact, it was shown as far back as James Gunn's DC FanDome presentation that offered fans an advanced look behind the scenes of his production. If the twist felt obvious, it was probably because everyone subconsciously knew about it months ago.
At the time, DC FanDome was heralded as a watershed moment for at-home comic cons and movie marketing, setting a precedent that other conventions should still be looking to follow, even after the pandemic is over. Gunn's presentation, which showed the first footage of The Suicide Squad and introduced fans to some of the key players was definitely a high-point, alongside the first footage of Matt Reeves' The Batman, but it gave away a few too many secrets. The first to turn up was the reveal that Starro the Conqueror was set to play the villain thanks to background hints in some of the footage.
One spoiler is usually enough, but The Suicide Squad FanDome footage also showed two teases of Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag and John Cena's Peacemaker fighting, confirming that one of them would be turning. In the wake of Starro's reveal, it seemed likely that one of the Task Force X members would be infected by a spore and turn on their team-mate, but the movie revealed that Peacemaker was operating on his own secret mission set by Amanda Waller and Rick Flag opposed the mission. Flag's crisis of morality - which fits the fact that he was never a villain - was instigated by the revelation that Project Starfish experimented on innocents to discover and weaponize Starro's secrets. And everyone got an early hint of it thanks to DC FanDome.
The footage in question showed Flag and Peacemaker fighting, as reflected at first in the latter's chrome helmet and then a brief look at them going toe-to-toe in the run-up to Flag's surprisingly heartbreaking death. Given that neither was wearing a Starro spore mask at the time, it should have been obvious that the scenes were teasing a face-turn by one of the anti-heroes. And Flag's backstory always made more sense. But that's not the point: the issue here is that The Suicide Squad's marketing campaign had some pretty notable issues in hindsight, not least because it too heavily teased the opening act's brutal killing of the first iteration of Task Force X. Leaning into the "don't get attached" messaging and then killing off so many characters so quickly gave everyone who survived that cull a degree of plot armor for the rest of the film, compromising the marketing message entirely. And then to have a couple of major secrets spoiled as well is pretty unfortunate.
The Peacemaker twist is far from illogical given the super-villain's very open admission that he will do whatever it takes for peace - and to protect his country - up to and including mass murder. Hiding damaging government secrets and toppling a hostile foreign power was pretty small fry. Hopefully, when John Cena's liberty lover returns in the Peacemaker HBO Max spin-off teased by The Suicide Squad's post-credits scene, there'll be even more insight into precisely how far he's willing to go to uphold peace. He is, after all, presented as something of a state-sponsored superhero in that set-up, making him more like Homelander from The Boys than the "douchey Captain America" Cena labeled him pre-release. And hopefully, that show keeps its secrets guarded a little better.
