News that John Cena's Peacemaker would be getting his own TV series came as a surprise to fans, particularly after they'd watched The Suicide Squad. As one of the most despicable members of Task Force X, it was hard to figure out why James Gunn would want to tell Christopher Smith's story, but thanks to Peacemaker, we've learned that there's much more to the character than we realised.
Smith is by no means all bad and a traumatic childhood clearly pushed him down some darker paths. We've seen that he regretted killing Rick Flag, but in an interview with Vulture, Gunn explained there was one very specific scene in The Suicide Squad that served as inspiration for the HBO Max series.
"There’s one really specific moment with me and John that I can trace the origin of this show back to. It’s the moment in The Suicide Squad where Peacemaker is holding his gun on Ratcatcher 2 and he’s about to kill her. I went into this tight closeup of his eyes...and I see his eyes switch. I see him go to this incredibly sad, vulnerable place. We realize this character is a guy who’s doing something he doesn’t want to do at all, but that he’s going to do anyway, which is shoot a young girl."
"When I saw that moment in him, I knew John was not just a performer who was funny, which is why I hired him, but a guy who had this other layer," Gunn concluded.
The filmmaker was successful in exploring Peacemaker's vulnerable side, and later took to Twitter to confirm that the shot in the banner image above is actually the one he's referring to here. Now, with the vigilante established as more of an anti-hero than villain, it should be interesting seeing how his story continues to develop when the show returns for its second season on HBO Max.
Smith remains on the path to redemption, but with his dead father's voice in his head and a lot of trauma to deal with, we're sure Gunn still has plenty in store for the character moving forward.
All episodes of Peacemaker are now streaming on HBO Max.
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