James Gunn confirms how many ‘Peacemaker’ episodes to expect

James Gunn has confirmed how many episodes of Peacemaker we can expect to land on HBO Max starting next month. Following his critically acclaimed — if financially underwhelming — DC debut The Suicide Squad this past summer, the Guardians of the Galaxy filmmaker is continuing his partnership with Marvel’s Distinguished Competition to deliver a spinoff series based around John Cena’s gun-toting pacifist, Peacemaker.

DC fans have been waiting for this one since August, and now we’re just a couple of weeks away from the series premiering on the WarnerMedia streaming service. The best bit is, as Gunn confirmed on social media today, that the first three episodes will drop as one on Jan. 13. As for how many there will be to come after that, the writer/director revealed that Peacemaker runs for eight installments in total.

Gunn answered a couple of other fan questions in the same Twitter thread. When it comes to how long the episodes will be, Gunn explained that there will be some slight variation in length, as we’ve come to expect from streaming series, but each will be around 45 minutes.

As for why there are only eight episodes, Gunn remarked that there are both creative and practical reasons for that. That episode count suited the story he wanted to tell, plus Gunn knew that he only had a certain window to make the show before he was needed back at Marvel to do Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

After his miraculous survival in The Suicide Squad‘s post-credits scene, Christopher Smith is back to bring about peace — no matter how many men, women, and children he has to kill to do it. Cena is joined in the cast by the likes of Jennifer Holland, Steve Agee, Freddie Stroma, Danielle Brooks, Robert Patrick, and Chuwudi Iwuji. Don’t miss Peacemaker when it premieres on HBO Max on Thursday, Jan. 13.