James Gunn brings new revelations about everyone’s favorite ‘Peacemaker’ scene

Writer-director James Gunn is divulging what all went into the mountain of famous names mentioned in one of Peacemaker’s funniest scenes.

In the HBO Max Original series that takes place in the DC cinematic universe, the scene in question features John Cena’s Christopher Smith, AKA Peacemaker, ranting at Steve Agee’s John Economos. Peacemaker is angered that Economos framed his father, Robert Patrick’s August Smith (AKA White Dragon), for a murder that Chris committed when he destroyed an alien-infested woman.

Chris offers a list of other names Economos could’ve used instead of August, including Ariana Grande, Conan O’Brien, and Super Mario.

A fan on Twitter asked Gunn about an apparently extended version of the scene, which included meta-references to Gunn himself and fellow Peacemaker star Freddie Stroma, who plays Adrian Chase, AKA Vigilante, in the show.

Gunn, being the frequent tweeter that he is, responded to the fan, revealing that the clip is indeed an extended cut. Chris mentioning Gunn and Stroma was not in the original TV cut, he explained. Gunn also divulged that while a few of the names were in the script, much of it came from improvisations by Cena and Gunn, via the director routinely talking to the cast over a mic on set during filming.

Peacemaker has arguably been DC’s most successful project in the realm of TV so far this year, even though it is a spinoff of the box office-disappoint — but still critically acclaimed — theatrical film, last year’s The Suicide Squad. In fact, many Twitter users pointed to both Peacemaker and The Batman as dominating the realm of live-action comic book adaptions, in general, so far this year.