Time flies when you’re having fun! It feels like James Gunn‘s live-action Peacemaker series for HBO Max was only recently announced, but now we have learned that the show has added additional cast members, received an official release window, and has already started filming!
Peacemaker, which is a prequel spinoff of Gunn’s The Suicide Squad (2021), provides an action-packed origin story for John Cena’s Peacemaker character from the upcoming film. Peacemaker is described as “a man who believes in peace at any cost — no matter how many people he has to kill to get it”, which means we can certainly expect one hell of a ride as we see the journey of Cena’s character.
The series was first announced in August of 2020 with filming beginning earlier this year in January 2021. As the series is currently in production, more and more information has begun to trickle out as to exactly what we may be seeing in the upcoming show.
HBO and HBO Max content chief Casey Bloys recently spoke to THR following a presentation at the Winter TCA Press Tour and revealed that James Gunn’s Peacemaker series is planned to launch on the HBO Max subscription streaming service in January 2022. As one of the first DC Universe projects that Bloys has personally had a hand in, he also had quite a bit to say about the monumental step Peacemaker is for HBO Max’s programming:
I just started to get involved with the DC content in August, Peacemaker is one of the first shows I greenlit and one of the first shows coming out, in January 2022. It’s a great example of what HBO Max can do with DC content in that we’re producing at a level we haven’t seen DC content on TV do thus far.
Bloys also touched on the new levels of communication between the different teams at Warner Bros. that are working on various DC Universe projects between film, television, and now the streaming service:
It’s been one of [WarnerMedia CEO] Ann Sarnoff’s priorities to organize the DC world for exactly what you’re talking about — to make sure that the universe is logical and makes sense. She talks about the flywheel: that the movies speak to the TV shows that speak to the movies — that it’s all connected.
There’s a lot of work going on in that at DC and Warner Bros. That is very much something that Ann has made a priority and the company is doing. It’s one of the things in terms of WarnerMedia today vs. Time Warner five years ago, I have regular conversations now with [Warner Bros. film chief] Toby Emmerich and [DC content chief] Jim Lee and we talk about all things in ways that never would have been discussed before.
That’s probably how you got a little DC over here, a little of DC over there, etc. The idea going forward is that we’re talking with one voice about the DC universe. It’s a really valuable world to have and we want to make sure we’re using it correctly.
From what Bloys is saying, it sounds like Warner Bros. is finally trying to take a page out of Marvel‘s book. They seem to want to bring a deeper connectivity between many of their projects in order to ensure that fans are satisfied with their output and that there isn’t any confusion caused by some of the same characters being used on different platforms.
Writer director James Gunn is executive producing Peacemaker along with The Suicide Squad (2021) producer Peter Safran. Series star John Cena is a co-executive producer. Gunn is writing all eight episodes of Peacemaker and stepping behind the camera to direct a number of episodes, though it has not been said just how many yet.
As you would expect for a spinoff based on an established character (well, he won’t be established until The Suicide Squad (2021) releases this August, but you know what we mean), John Cena is leading the cast as the titular character, the Peacemaker. The cast is jam-packed with fan-favorite actors like Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Chukwudi Iwuji (When They See Us), Chris Conrad (Patriot), with Jennifer Holland (Brightburn), and Steve Agee (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) reprising their roles from The Suicide Squad.
Recently it was announced that several additional cast members have joined the project, including Nhut Le (The Kroll Show) as Judomaster, Elizabeth Faith Ludlow (Godzilla: King Of The Monsters) as Keeya, and Rizwan Manji (Schitt’s Creek) as Jamil.
Judomaster is an obscure comic book hero that dates back to the 1960s and originated in Charlton Comics, but was acquired by DC Comics in the 1980s along with a number of other Charlton characters. There have been a number of characters to carry the Judomaster mantle, and it has not been clarified which version Le will be playing in the series.
Meanwhile, Keeya and Jamil remain a mystery. Little to no information is available for either of these characters, so they may be original characters created for the show, or perhaps they could have been cast under alternative names to keep their characters a secret ahead of the show’s release.
James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad (2021) hits theaters and the HBO Max subscription streaming service on August 6, 2021. The Peacemaker spinoff is now set to premiere on HBO Max in January 2022.
Are you excited to see more of John Cena’s Peacemaker? What other characters are you hoping to see pop up in the series? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and be sure to stick around Geek Anything for more DC Universe updates!
