This story contains spoilers for The Suicide Squad.
The upcoming Peacemaker series, which will be a spinoff to James Gunn's wacky gore-fest The Suicide Squad, has been shrouded in mystery from its announcement to even now when its 1st season has already completed filming. While it's not exactly out of place for such a project to remain mostly under wraps, interest in what exactly the show will be about absolutely skyrocketed when The Suicide Squad finally premiered. So what's the deal?
Well, Gunn is still playing his cards close to the chest, only revealing what he thinks needs to be known. In fact, he's been doing so well at this that nobody even knows what the time frame of the series will be. While watching the film, many might assume it will be a prequel, due to what happens to John Cena's Peacemaker surrounding The Suicide Squad's climax. But then one final post-credit scene reveals he actually survived, leading some to speculate that Peacemaker will actually be a continuation.
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It turns out Gunn still isn't budging, though he recently offered a few hints. While speaking with Variety, the interviewer inquired about that very mystery. "Well, through the story, you learn where Peacemaker came from," Gunn sort of answered. "There's a moment in the movie where Bloodsport talks about his father and what his father was like, and you cut to a shot of Peacemaker, and Peacemaker nods. That's the seed of the entire Peacemaker series. So we get to see Peacemaker with his father, who's played by Robert Patrick, where he came from, what he's done, what that means to him, and where he's going after all of this. Because he's not an evil person, he's just a bad guy. He seems sort of irredeemable in the film. But I think that there's more to him. We didn't get a chance to know him [in The Suicide Squad] in the way we get to know some of the other characters. And so that's what the whole show is about. I needed eight episodes to do it, at least."
Picking through his response, one might find a kernel of a tease for what to expect. Peacemaker definitely did some despicable things during the run time of The Suicide Squad, entirely revolving around killing (what a shocker). From unwittingly taking part in the slaughter of an entire resistance camp (to be fair, they were all duped) to murdering Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag to protect a damaging secret (and going after Daniela Melchior's Ratcatcher 2 for the same reason), there's no question that he'd definitely be a work in progress if anyone wanted to see him as a sympathetic character.
But that seems to be the plan, according to Gunn. Based on his answer, it almost appears as if the Peacemaker series will primarily focus on the past, or at the very least spend equal time in the past and present. Peacemaker's justification for why he does what he does is sort of played for laughs in The Suicide Squad, but it also begs the question of how he got to be that way. Seeing how he interacts with his father is sure to give a pretty thorough glimpse into the mind of a man who strives for peace, no matter how many innocents he has to kill to make it happen.
Peacemaker continues to remain an enigma for the time being, and that's probably by design. Perhaps as more people watch The Suicide Squad, Gunn will slowly reveal more info in order to avoid spoiling as many people as possible. Of course, that's an extremely optimistic guess. But luckily, there's still plenty of time for speculation, and in the end, isn't that what it's all about? Well, maybe that and arguing over which member of the squad would be the best hugger (it's King Shark).
Peacemaker is targeting a January 2022 release on HBO Max.
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Source: Variety
