| Season Number: | 1 |
| Bgcolour: |
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| Showrunner: | James Gunn |
| Network: | HBO Max |
| Num Episodes: | 8 |
| Episode List: | List of Peacemaker episodes |
The first season of the American superhero television series Peacemaker is based on the DC Comics character of the same name. It is the only television series in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and a spin-off from the 2021 film The Suicide Squad. Set after the events of the film, the season further explores jingoistic mercenary Christopher Smith / Peacemaker. It was produced by the Safran Company and Troll Court Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Television and with James Gunn as showrunner.
John Cena stars as the title character, reprising his role from The Suicide Squad, with Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Chukwudi Iwuji, Jennifer Holland, Steve Agee, and Robert Patrick also starring. Gunn conceived the series after noting Cena's strength as a dramatic actor while filming The Suicide Squad, and wrote all eight episodes while completing the film during the COVID-19 pandemic. Peacemaker was ordered straight-to-series in September 2020, and additional casting took place over the following months. Filming began in Vancouver, Canada, in January 2021, with Gunn directing five episodes. Production on the season wrapped in July. Gunn chose to use hair metal songs for the season's soundtrack, including "Do Ya Wanna Taste It" by Wig Wam for the opening titles; the title sequence features cast members seriously and stoically performing a choreographed dance number.
The season premiered on the streaming service HBO Max on January 13, 2022, with its first three episodes. The other five episodes were released weekly until February 17. Each episode received higher viewership than the last, and the finale broke the record for highest single day viewership of an HBO Max original episode. The season received positive reviews, particularly for Cena's performance, Gunn's directing and writing, and the opening title sequence. It was nominated for several awards including a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award for the season's stunt coordination. A second season was ordered in February 2022 which integrates the series with Gunn's new DC Universe (DCU).
Viola Davis reprises her DCEU film role as Amanda Waller in an uncredited cameo appearance, as do Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Ezra Miller as the Flash. Justice League members Superman and Wonder Woman also appear, portrayed by stand-ins with their faces obscured. Additionally, Dee Bradley Baker voices Peacemaker's pet bald eagle, Eagly, and Stephen Blackehart voices Charlie the Gorilla.
While completing work on The Suicide Squad (2021) in August 2020, during a COVID-19 lockdown, writer and director James Gunn began writing a spin-off television series centered on the origins of Peacemaker, a character portrayed by John Cena in the film. Gunn said he did this "mostly for fun", and mentioned the idea to The Suicide Squad producer Peter Safran as something he would like to pursue. When DC Films later asked Safran about developing a spin-off series based on The Suicide Squad, he knew that Gunn would say yes to making a Peacemaker series. There were initial discussions about what platform the series should be released through, with the pay television channel HBO and the streaming service HBO Max being two options. The series ultimately went to HBO Max, and Gunn felt this was because it was a new streaming service that needed content and was willing to give Gunn the budget he wanted for the series. DC Films president Walter Hamada later explained that the studio was working with the filmmakers of all its upcoming film slate to try create interconnected spin-off television series for HBO Max based on those films.
HBO Max ordered Peacemaker straight-to-series in September 2020, with Gunn writing all eight episodes of the first season and directing five of them. Gunn and Safran were set as executive producers, with Cena as co-executive producer. The season was produced by Gunn's Troll Court Entertainment and the Safran Company in conjunction with Warner Bros. Television. Matt Miller joined as an additional executive producer in December.
During the filming of The Suicide Squad, particularly for the scene where Peacemaker attempts to kill Ratcatcher 2, Gunn came to feel that Cena was a much stronger dramatic actor than he was considered to be after previously being known primarily as a professional wrestler and comedic actor. Gunn felt he would be able to show more of this dramatic side to Cena in a story focused on Peacemaker, and also felt the character had not been explored or developed as much as other characters in The Suicide Squad. He eventually decided to write a television series starring the character. Gunn had never worked in television before and approached the project using his experience of writing film scripts and his knowledge of television series that he had seen. He saw the difference between film and television as the former needing to be "more cut and dried" due to the limited runtime while the latter has more time to explore complicated characters and relationships. A particular influence on the series was Better Call Saul, with Gunn drawing parallels between that series' protagonist, Saul Goodman, and Peacemaker.
Gunn took eight weeks to write the first season, during a break between his work on The Suicide Squad and Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). He mostly wrote it in order, with the first two sequences he came up with on the first day of writing being the opening hospital scene and the dance number that is the opening title sequence. Peacemaker extends the world that Gunn built for The Suicide Squad, taking place after the film's post-credit scene which reveals that Peacemaker survived an apparently fatal gunshot wound from earlier in the film. Gunn said the series was an opportunity to explore current world issues through the title character, and to expand on his relationship with his father that is hinted at in the film. He said the story of the first season was about Peacemaker coming to terms with the difference between his ideals and who he actually is, with the character realizing that his identity is based on his childhood trauma and his treatment by his father. Gunn was not sure initially if the character would choose to fight or join the villains at the end of the season, but realized while making it that the series lent itself to being a redemption story. He did not want the villains, the Butterflies, to have a goal that was "thoroughly evil" and instead decided that they wanted to save humanity, despite being "mind-controlling aliens", from its "anti-science" mindset and populist leaders. Gunn said the "anti-science" line was more of a reference to climate change deniers than anti-vaxxers since debates about the COVID-19 vaccine were only just beginning when the season was being made. The scenes in which Peacemaker and Vigilante have an "elaborate target practice" where they shoot and blow-up things in the woods was inspired by Gunn doing similar things with his friends as a child. Gunn added a post-credits scene to the end of each episode as a way to reward fans who watched the full credits every time, with each scene featuring unused footage from the episode. He compared the idea of having a joke after the credits to the end scenes of Rick and Morty.
Like The Suicide Squad, the series features graphic violence and profanity, and HBO Max gave Gunn some notes on the abundant use of the word "fuck" as well as a specific moment in the sixth episode that they were concerned about but that Gunn insisted on keeping. Other notes that Gunn received included questions about his references to certain characters, for instance Bat-Mite who is now canonically part of the DCEU due to this series referencing him. Gunn acknowledged these questions but was mostly able to make the references that he wanted to make and was never required to make any specific connections to other projects or set up future DCEU stories. Gunn did say that a character from the series would appear in an upcoming DCEU film and the fourth episode includes a newspaper headline about the Intergang's activities in Kahndaq, referencing the events of Black Adam (2022). Members of the Justice League also make cameo appearances in the season finale, which caused some concerns for Warner Bros. due to the ramifications it had for the DCEU, but the company ultimately allowed it.
With the series order in September 2020, John Cena was confirmed to be reprising his role as Peacemaker from The Suicide Squad. The next month, Gunn's close friend Steve Agee joined the series as John Economos, also returning from the film. In November, Gunn's girlfriend Jennifer Holland joined as her The Suicide Squad character Emilia Harcourt, alongside Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, Robert Patrick as Auggie Smith, and Chris Conrad as Adrian Chase / Vigilante. Holland was surprised that Gunn brought her character back for the series, believing that her part in The Suicide Squad would be a short one-off role. Chukwudi Iwuji joined the cast as Clemson Murn in December. One of Gunn's favorite parts of making the series was being able to work closely with Holland and Agee, and he soon became close friends with other members of the cast as well, with Gunn going on to cast Iwuji in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Several recurring guests were also cast in December: Lochlyn Munro as Larry Fitzgibbon, Annie Chang as Detective Sophie Song, and Christopher Heyerdahl as Captain Locke. Munro was cast after Gunn saw his audition and remembered that Munro had been one of his choices for the role of Shaggy Rogers in Scooby-Doo (2002) prior to Matthew Lillard's casting for that film. In February 2021, several more recurring roles were cast: Elizabeth Ludlow as Keeya, Rizwan Manji as Jamil, Nhut Le as Judomaster, and Alison Araya and Lenny Jacobson as the couple Amber and Evan. In late May, Freddie Stroma was cast to replace Conrad as Adrian Chase / Vigilante, after Conrad left the series due to creative differences. The series's premiere revealed that Viola Davis reprises her DCEU role as Amanda Waller, while Dee Bradley Baker voices Peacemaker's pet bald eagle, Eagly, after also voicing Ratcatcher 2's pet rat Sebastian in The Suicide Squad. Stephen Blackehart, who made cameo appearances in many of Gunn's previous films including The Suicide Squad, voices the possessed gorilla Charlie.
Gunn knew that the series did not have the budget to allow the Justice League to fight in the final battle, so he always intended for them to "show up late". He also did not expect the actual Justice League actors to reprise their roles in the series, other than Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry / Aquaman. Gunn had known Momoa for a long time, and Safran produced the DCEU Aquaman films, so they talked to Momoa early on and revealed that Peacemaker would claim that Aquaman "fucks fish" as a running joke in the series. Momoa thought this was funny and agreed to appear. Gunn later heard that Ezra Miller was a fan of his films and contacted the actor about reprising their role as Barry Allen / The Flash as well. The other Justice League members—Clark Kent / Superman, Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, Bruce Wayne / Batman, and Victor Stone / Cyborg—were portrayed by stand-ins. Warner Bros. later asked for Batman and Cyborg to be removed, which Gunn said may have been due to planned DCEU projects.
By early November 2020, Gunn had arrived in Canada for a two-week quarantine before starting production on the series. Filming began on January 15, 2021, in Vancouver, Canada, under the working title The Scriptures, with Michael Bonvillain serving as cinematographer. Gunn chose to film in Vancouver because he wanted the series to be set in the Pacific Northwest, and because he felt the production would be safer there because Canada was managing the pandemic better than the United States. Gunn directed five of the series' episodes, with Jody Hill, Rosemary Rodriguez, and Brad Anderson each directing one.
One of the first scenes that the production filmed was the post-credits scene for The Suicide Squad that sets up the beginning of Peacemaker. Davis's first appearance as Waller in the series is on a Zoom call, but rather than have her make a Zoom call to the set in Vancouver the production went to Davis in Los Angeles to film her part. The first five episodes were filmed first, and Conrad had already filmed five-and-a-half episodes as Vigilante when he left the series. Gunn re-shot all of those scenes with Stroma after the latter was hired to replace Conrad, at the same time as the last three episodes were filmed. The sixth episode was filmed last because Gunn initially did not plan to direct it himself, but ultimately he "couldn't let it go" and it became his favorite episode of the season. Filming for the first seven episodes took around 12 to 15 days each, and the finale took 21 or 22 days. This was mostly due to the finale requiring night shooting for which there was limited filming time each night. Production on the first season lasted 131 days total, and wrapped on July 11. Gunn later filmed Miller's cameo as the Flash on the set of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with that film's crew. Marvel allowed this as a favor to DC since Iwuji's screen test for Vol. 3 was filmed on the set of Peacemaker with the series' crew.
Gunn wrote the dance number for the series' opening titles into the script because he thought it would be funny, and because he wanted to tell the audience that this would be different from other superhero television series and they should expect to be surprised. The script describes the dance sequence as "the greatest opening credits scene of all time" and "the weirdest dance you've ever seen and everyone in it is completely and 100 percent serious". Gunn hoped that people would be interested enough in the sequence that they would not use the "Skip Intro" button that streaming services use since he felt it was important that viewers see the names of everyone who worked on the series.
The dance number was filmed in the middle of the series' filming schedule over one day in a high school auditorium. It features the series' main cast as well as guest stars from several episodes, including Rizwan Manji who traveled to Canada and went through two weeks of quarantine for a third time just to be in the sequence. Gunn had originally planned for the sequence to be set in the Project Butterfly headquarters but they found it to be too small during rehearsals. When they located the auditorium, he asked production designer Lisa Soper to dress it like a 1970s variety show set. They eventually found that this also did not work and instead moved towards more 1980s designs, such as those used by the band Kraftwerk. Gunn wanted the dancing to be outlandish and robotic, but he wanted all of the actors to do it very seriously and stoically, as he felt that reflected the balance of seriousness and silliness that the series has. Gunn hired choreographer Charissa-Lee Barton to help him plan the sequence, and only found out later that she was married to actor Alan Tudyk, who performed many of the actions for Barton while she choreographed the dance. Tudyk also stood-in as Peacemaker during rehearsal when Cena was not available.
Sarofsky, the company behind the onscreen titles for The Suicide Squad, provided the typography for the Peacemaker opening sequence. The company took inspiration from the series' hair metal soundtrack by researching band logos and concert posters for the genre. They found many of these to be "nearly illegible", and needed a font that evoked the style while being readable for the audience. The font New Zelek was ultimately chosen, as it has "the angular, geometric feel we were looking for and the letterforms are clear and familiar enough that one can read the words effortlessly". The letters are pink and blue neon to match the sequence's production design.
Each episode begins with a recap, including the first which has a recap of the events of The Suicide Squad. This includes a moment that was removed from the film, in which Flo Crawley, an aide of Waller's who knocked her out during the final fight, is arrested. Gunn said this was not necessary to see for the ending of the film, but was included in the recap for Peacemaker because it explained why the character was not included on the team with Waller's other aides Harcourt and Economos. Sarofsky applied the same title treatment as the opening sequence to the "previously on" title cards as well as the episode titles.
After having a difficult time with the visual effects-heavy character King Shark in The Suicide Squad, Gunn said creating Eagly for Peacemaker was a lot easier. Weta Digital, who worked on King Shark, provided the visual effects for Eagly and based the animated model on an existing one that the company had previously used. The series' camera crew often needed to be digitally removed from the reflections on Peacemaker's helmet.
Gunn revealed in June 2021 that Clint Mansell and Kevin Kiner were composing the score for the season, after The Suicide Squad composer John Murphy was busy writing the score for Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Murphy did perform and produce a cover of Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks", featuring Ralph Saenz, for the season. This was released as a single on January 9, 2022. The following day, Gunn released a Spotify playlist featuring songs from the season; it initially just covered the first three episodes, including Murphy's version of "Pumped Up Kicks", but Gunn planned to update the playlist with the release of each subsequent episode.
Like with his feature films, Gunn selected all of the songs for the season himself and wrote them into the script. He chose the hair metal genre of music because he thought it was what Peacemaker would listen to, and because he had spent the last few years exploring it after previously not being a fan. He was excited to bring those songs, including some from new and unknown bands, to a new audience like he had done with pre-1980s pop music on the soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). The season's opening title sequence features the song "Do Ya Wanna Taste It" by Wig Wam. Gunn gave playlists of hair metal songs to Mansell and Kiner as inspiration for the score, and discussed the "unapologetically melodic ballads" written by those bands. Mansell developed the "broad strokes" of the music and Kiner fleshed out those ideas. The latter described their music for the season as a mixture of rock, orchestra, and choir, and compared it to the work of bands Queen and Cinderella; Fred Coury, a drummer for Cinderella, contributed to the score. The main theme for Peacemaker is primarily played on electric guitar, even for more emotional moments that traditionally would use piano. Kiner felt they created a score that was unique to the series and title character.
During filming for The Suicide Squad in Panama, Gunn learned that his dog was about to die. He said this was one of the saddest days of his life, and he decided to fly home to see the dog while he still could. When Gunn was waiting to be taken to the airport, Cena played a version of Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" on piano. Gunn said, "It crushed me and yet soothed me and everyone around me was crying", and he wanted to try capture that moment in Peacemaker with a scene where the title character plays a piano and expresses himself as an artist for the first time. In the scene, Cena plays a cover of Mötley Crüe's "Home Sweet Home", which was arranged by Murphy and released as a single on February 4. A soundtrack album featuring Mansell and Kiner's score, as well as Murphy's "Pumped Up Kicks" cover and Cena's "Home Sweet Home" cover, was released on February 18.
The first teaser trailer for the series was released during the virtual DC FanDome event in October 2021, along with some behind-the-scenes footage. Commentators discussed the comedic tone of the teaser, feeling it was consistent with Gunn and Cena's work on The Suicide Squad, and also noted the hints that Brooks' Leota could help Peacemaker become a better person during the series. Peacemaker's pet bald eagle, Eagly, was also a highlight from the teaser. From January 6 to May 27, 2022, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood was updated to feature props and costumes from the season, including a life-sized version of Eagly. As he did while promoting The Suicide Squad, Cena decided to wear the Peacemaker costume for some interviews and other promotional events as a way to familiarize the audience with the lesser-known character.
The season premiered on HBO Max on January 13, 2022, with its first three episodes. The other five were released weekly through February 17. It was released in the United Kingdom on March 22, on Sky Max and Now.
According to Whip Media, who track viewership data for the 19 million worldwide users of their TV Time app, Peacemaker was the most anticipated new series of January 2022. Variety also named it one of the 40 most anticipated series of 2022. Analytics company Samba TV, which gathers viewership data from certain Smart TVs and content providers, reported that 638,000 U.S. households watched the first episode over its first four days of release. This was considerably lower than their estimates for two recent series on rival streaming service Disney+: The Book of Boba Fett (1.7 million U.S. households in its first five days) and Hawkeye (1.5 million U.S. households during its launch). Whip Media calculated that Peacemaker was the third-highest original streaming series for U.S. viewership during the week it premiered, behind The Book of Boba Fett and Netflix's Cobra Kai. It remained in that position on the chart for the next two weeks, dropped to fourth place for the weeks that the sixth and seventh episodes were released, and ended in second place during the week of the season finale.
JustWatch, a guide to streaming content with access to data from more than 20 million users around the world, estimated that Peacemaker was the second- or third-most watched streaming series in the U.S. for each week of its release, behind Paramount Network's Yellowstone, Showtime's Yellowjackets, and Apple TV+'s Severance on different weeks. Parrot Analytics determines audience "demand expressions" based on various data sources, including video streaming, social media activity, photo sharing, comments on fan and critic rating platforms, downloading and streaming on file sharing sites, and blogging. During the week of the series' debut, the company calculated that for U.S. streaming series it was the fifty-second-most in demand. It moved up to seventh place the next week, and remained in the top ten for the rest of its run. It was calculated to be the fourth-most in demand streaming series in the U.S. during the week of the season finale, with Parrot saying it was 33.7 times more in demand than the average series. Globally, the company said Peacemaker was the most in-demand series in the world a week after its debut, ahead of popular series such as The Book of Boba Fett and Netflix's The Witcher. Parrot calculated that, globally, Peacemaker was 69.5 times more in demand than the average series.
On Variety "Trending TV" chart—which looks at weekly audience engagement based on Twitter mentions, retweets, and likes—the series appeared in the top ten for each week that a new episode was released, starting in second place with 295,000 engagements behind HBO's Euphoria which had 440,000. It was first place for the first time during the week of the season finale, with nearly 700,000 engagements. The site said this "blew away the TV competition", with Euphoria being the next closest series that week with around 460,000 engagements. Deadline Hollywood reported that each episode of Peacemaker received higher viewership than the last, and HBO Max stated that the season finale's viewership was 44 percent higher than the series premiere's. According to the service, the finale broke the record for highest single day viewership of an HBO Max original episode. In the UK, where Peacemaker was not released until after it had finished airing in the U.S., the series was the third-most pirated for the first quarter of 2022 after Euphoria and The Book of Boba Fett.
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 94% approval rating with an average rating of 7.7/10, based on 89 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "John Cena's still in solid form as Peacemaker, leading a bloody good time that gives writer-director James Gunn full permission to let his freak flag fly."[1] Metacritic gave it a weighted average score of 70 out of 100 based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[2]
IGN gave the first three episodes 8 out of 10, saying that "The three-episode premiere offers a goofy takedown of vigilantism" while praising the cast's performances and humor.[3] The Guardian gave the first three episodes a score of 3 out of 5 writing "James Gunn's Suicide Squad character gets his own HBO Max series with mixed results but a winning central performance."[4]
The title sequence was met with critical acclaim,[5] [6] [7] with TV Guides Matt Roush stating that it "perfectly captures the tongue-in-bloody-cheek spirit" of the series.[8]
Agee was named TVLines "Performer of the Week" for the season finale, especially for his emotional monologue about why Economos dyes his beard. The site also noted the performances in the episode of Chang, Brooks, Holland, and Cena, with the latter also being named an honorable mention for "Performer of the Week" for the previous episode, specifically for the scenes where Peacemaker kills his father and prays for Eagly.
HBO Max and DC worked with production company Rooster Teeth to produce an official, aftershow-style video podcast titled Podly. Hosted by Rooster Teeth's Fiona Nova and Ify Nwadiwe, each episode of the podcast includes a recap of one of the season's episodes as well as interviews with cast and crew members. The video podcast wa available to stream on HBO Max and YouTube, with an audio-only version of it available via audio platforms.