“Peacemaker” Official Trailer Reveals One Beefy Brute’s Rude Awakening
James Gunn’s upcoming The Suicide Squad spinoff series Peacemaker‘s release is nigh, and now HBO Max has released the official trailer. When we last saw John Cena’s titular character in The Suicide Squad, he’d miraculously survived a duel with Bloodsport (Idris Elba) after becoming the film’s villain. Peacemaker is a character at war with himself (and, unfortunately, everybody else) because he’s a man who will pursue peace, no matter who he hurts in the process, including children. Well, we should say that Peacemaker seemed okay with his role in The Suicide Squad, but in the official trailer for Peacemaker, he seems to be increasingly conflicted about his mission.
Peacemaker will track its central hero’s journey after he’s been patched up in the hospital and sprung from jail by the U.S. Government. The reason he was released was because of his profession—as he tells his buddy, Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), he kills people for the government. Yet our muscle-bound doofus in the shiny helmet no longer seems so sure pursuing peace at all costs makes sense, and that realization seems like it’ll be the emotional fulcrum around which the series will turn.
There are a few other faces from The Suicide Squad you’ll see in Peacemaker—Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt and Steve Agee as John Economos. Newcomers include Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, Chukwudi Iwuji as Clemson Murn, and Robert Patrick as Peacemaker’s father. There’s also a bald eagle, named—wait for it—Eagle-y.
Gunn pitched HBO the concept for the series in the midst of working on The Suicide Squad, believing there was more story to tell around Cena’s living paradox of a character. The trailer suggests that Peacemaker will be seriously wild, but there’s something soulful about seeing Cena’s beefy brute wise up. One of the strongest elements of The Suicide Squad was the way the characters bonded during their psychotic mission, with Peacemaker being the bad guy they all learned to loathe. Maybe in his own series, he’ll be somebody worth fighting for, too.
Peacemaker arrives on HBO Max this January 13. Check out the trailer below.
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Featured image: L-r: Economos (Steve Agee), Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji), Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), Peacemaker (John Cena). Photograph by Katie Yu/HBO Max
