The reaction to James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” was more divisive than many expected, but it was hard to find anyone who wasn’t entertained by John Cena’s inspired performance as the greatest American hero in his own mind, Peacemaker. A vigilante with a skewed justification of wring and wrong, the 55-year-old Charlton Comics creation now his is own spin-off series on HBO Max. Cena gleefully returns as “Peacemaker” and, during a press conference for the Television Critics Association, made two specific promises for fans of the character.
“I’ve learned two things about James Gunn throughout our relationship,” Cena says. “One he’s obsessed with my tighty whites and he always wants to see me dance. So, you can watch this on HBO Max, and if [people] like it you will see me in my tighty whites and dancing in the future.”
In fact, the first episode of the series, expected to debut in January, has plenty of both. The series itself finds our “hero,” Christopher Smith (Cena), healthy and seemingly free of the shackles Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad put him in. He returns home to find a hardcore alt-right father (Robert Patrick) extremely dissapointed in him and a CG eagle, Eddie, who has missed him dearly. One thing Gunn makes sure of, however, is to make sure any stranger to the character immediately discovers his racist, sexist and jingoistic reputation.
“Peacemaker has a lot of issues. And I don’t sit down and say, ‘I have make this character likable.’ I sit down and I try to make a character as fully fleshed as possible,” Gunn says. “One of the things that made me wanted to tell the story of Peacemaker is he has a lot to learn. At the end of ‘Suicide Squad,’ Bloodsport learns a lot. He’s a better person than he was at the beginning. A lot of the characters are much better than they were at the beginning and Peacemaker has a lot to learn. It wouldn’t take just one season of TV for him to learn that. It is that ability to learn that he does have, I believe, as a character. It’s that ability to learn that for me makes him a little bit more likable. And hIs blind spots and in some places are pretty terrible and in some places are just him being ignorant. And I think that is an important distinction to make as well. He is open at the same time. Sometimes, I guess. But we get to see that journey. It’s just very, very basic. Peacemaker is almost every guy I grew up with in Missouri. He isn’t that different than people I know. As terrible as he is at times, he’s also kind of common. I think telling that story for a guy like that with those blind spots is kind of important. Because everyone on TV is totally good and totally perfect or they are evil, often times. Obviously there are a lot of great shows that aren’t like that. But I think it’s fun to make a super hero or a super villain, however you want to think of it, who has a lot of nuances.”
Gunn was down for a serious look at his first television series of his career, but Cera was in a much more jovial mood. Asked about whether playing a goofy anti-hero was similar to his legendary wrestling career, he remarked, “It completely mimics my existence in the WWE where I go out there in terms I think are virtuous to a thunderous chorus of ‘Cena sucks.’ And yes, although I can’t quite get the funds on zoom conferences it is in my contact to lose a fight in every piece of entertainment I do and, two, to be involved with a CG character of some sort.”
One thing was abundently clear, however. Both Gunn and Cena did not expect to reunite so soon after “Suicide Squad.” And particulary for an HBO Max spin-off.
“I was not planning on doing it at all,” Gunn admits. “Peter Safran and Walter Hamada from DC and they were like “Hey, if you could do a TV show on any one of the characters from ‘The Suicide Squad’ who would you do?’ And I just found something very interesting about Peacemaker both because I loved working with Jon Cena and I thought he had a lot of acting gifts and comedy gifts that we weren’t able to fully utilized in the movie. And I thought he was a really cool character that could be pertinent to today and today’s world in terms of his backward way of looking at things. A lot of the show is about his friendship with this other characters. Especially Danielle’s character Leota and their friendship that emerges out of this. Even though they very much represent very different parts of America today.”
The Danielle Gunn refers to is Danielle Brooks, the Tony Award nominee who most viewers will recognize as Taystee from “Orange is the New Black.” While a number of characers from Waller’s governmental agency return for “Peacemaker,” Brooks is one of the new addtions. As Leota, she plays one of the few agents who connects with Smith.
“Now I say she’s definitely an action hero,” Brooks says. “I think she was trying to figure it out. It was very much like me where she was trying to fake it till she made it. She probably never held a gun. I had never really held a gun either. But there is such a thrill or excitement of being a bad ass or even attempting to be a bad ass. And she leans into it until she’s like, ‘I don’t know if I can really do this.’ And I personally have always wanted to do action. So, this has truly been bigger than a Christmas gift. This has been such a huge gift to me as an actor. So, I’m really grateful that James Gunn wrote this character and had me in mind for it. But did I see myself doing this? Yes. I’m gonna go against what people see me as .I’m always going to fight to say, ‘This is what I wanna do. You might not have seen a girl like me do it, but I’m gonna do it. I think it’s that manifestation with it coupled with James’ ultimate heart of opening up of to different types of people joining this world.”
And it goes without saying that fans of Gunn’s previous films won’t be surprised to learn music plays a big part of the series.
“This was the soundtrack I was probably the most excited to create since the [first] ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ soundtrack,” Gunn says. “It really is all hair and metal. It’s al to of the 80’s hair and metal and a lot of modern sleazerocck that comes out of Europe and a lot of great bands a lot of people don’t know about. I love that stuff, but there is also a lot of bad hair and metal so it was fun finding the good stuff to inject the flavor with which we keep the whole first season.”
Emphasis on “first season.” This is one series DC, HBO Max and Gunn clearly hope continues for years to come. Viewers will get their own say on that possibility early next year.
“Peacemaker” will debut on HBO Max sometime in January 2022
