The Suicide Squad established that John Cena’s Peacemaker is a moron of both the oxy and regular kind; one who won’t hesitate to kill as many men, women and children as possible in the name of liberty, but he doesn’t seem like the sharpest knife in the drawer either.
The first trailer for his HBO Max spinoff hammered that point home even harder, juxtaposing the antihero killing lots of bad guys with talk of ‘butt babies’ and hugs from a CGI animal sidekick. Speaking of Eagly, the symbol of freedom quickly managed to capture the interest and imagination of social media, with fans thrilled at the prospect of seeing Cena’s deadpan comic stylings paired up with a bird of prey.
James Gunn wrote all eight episodes and directed five of them himself, with the other three falling into the capable hands of proven talents. The Machinist‘s Brad Anderson, Jessica Jones‘ Rosermary Rodriguez and Eastbound and Down‘s Jody Hill will helm one installment each, and they’ve all got plenty of experience in a number of genres to make it clear that style won’t be an issue.
An action-packed R-rated superhero show with lashings of black comedy and plenty of violence is a heady combination, meaning Peacemaker will be determined to get the DCEU’s expansion into episodic storytelling off to a winning start.
