James Gunn Discusses PEACEMAKER Series, Says it's "No Holds Barred" and Teases a Season 2

While fans seem to be enjoying the hell out of director James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, more awesomeness awaits with a spinoff series that’s coming to HBO Max titled Peacemaker, and it follows John Cena’s insane character.

Gunn just wanted to make a series about this “fucked up superhero”. He wrote the series and directed five of the eight episodes. Peacemaker is described as being an action-adventure comedy and it will “explore the origins of Peacemaker, a man who believes in peace at any cost, no matter how many people he has to kill to get it.”

In a recent interview with THR, Gunn continued to discuss the series and offered up some additional details, teasing that it’s going to be a “no holds barred” series and that it will have a lot of similarities to The Suicide Squad:

“There are a lot of similarities to The Suicide Squad in that it’s no holds barred, but there are also a lot of things that are very different, in that it’s quieter in some ways. It’s very specifically about a different group of people, so it’s a little bit more about society.”

While Peacemaker will have some similarities to The Suicide Squad, there will also be some differences in its approach to the characters. With this story, Gunn was able to dig more into the characters:

“One of the leads is Peacemaker and one of the leads is Danielle Brooks, who plays Leota Adebayo. And she has a very different political view of the world than Peacemaker does. So it’s just a little bit about what’s going on in the world, but also being a TV show, you really do have more time to delve much deeper into these characters and much more deeply into the drama and comedy of them. So it has a lot of similarities [to The Suicide Squad], but it’s even more grounded, more natural and more real. But it’s still within a big science-fiction storyline that lasts for one season.”

Some other characters that will be appearing in the series include John Economos and Emilia Harcourt, who are being played by Steve Agree and Jennifer Holland. When talking about this character, Gunn added:

“John Economos and Emilia Harcourt are part of the main six of the Peacemaker show, and it’s been so fun working with those guys. They’re obviously two of the closest people in the world to me. So it’s been just as fun as The Suicide Squad. It probably would’ve been more fun than The Suicide Squad if I didn’t have to wear a mask the whole time, but yeah.”

Gunn previously revealed that Peacemaker is “a big science-fiction story”, and that it will delve into some real-world issues. The filmmaker went on to say that the character “represents a part of the world populace that is problematic to say the least, and puts him in a situation where he has to face the choices he’s made throughout his life and the extremity of his views.”

While the storyline for Peacemaker only lasts for this season, Gunn says, “that doesn’t mean there’s only one season of Peacemaker.” So, it sounds to me like there might be some plans to continue what he started. That’ll make fans happy.

Peacemaker is set to arrive sometime in January 2022.