[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Suicide Squad.]
One of the more exhilarating aspects of The Suicide Squad is that characters die. Most superhero movies dodge delivering a fatal blow so they can bring the character back in a later installment, but writer/director James Gunn wasn’t so precious with the members of Task Force X. It didn’t matter if the character had appeared in 2016’s Suicide Squad or if they were played by a popular actor; everyone was fair game.
At the climax of the movie, it looks like Peacemaker (John Cena) isn’t one of the lucky survivors. After killing Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman) and while attempting to kill Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior), Peacemaker gets shot by Bloodsport (Idris Elba). And then the whole Jotunheim reactor falls on Peacemaker’s body when Starro emerges. And yet…he survives. In a post-credits scene, we see that Peacemaker is recuperating in a hospital bed and a couple of Waller’s cronies need him for a mission to save the world.
In our exclusive interview with Gunn, he confirmed that Peacemaker was originally supposed to die, but the credits scene with Peacemaker was added when the upcoming HBO Max Peacemaker series got a greenlight. “It got added because the TV show,” said Gunn. “I didn't say I was going to do the TV show until after the movie was basically finished being cut. So then I got asked to do the TV show, and then I said I would do it. Then when we started shooting the TV show, I shot the post-credit scene.”
Gunn added that the little scene with Weasel coughing up water and scampering off into the woods was always planned for the credits, but he was always hoping to put something at the very end of the credits as well. “I think I was hoping I could put something else at the very end of the credits, because I really liked where that first post-credit scene is now. I think it lays in nicely. It's just a part of the story. You know what I mean? The post-credit to the post-credit scene. It's really its own thing, setting up something else. But the first post-credit scene is a part of the story in a way,” Gunn explained. “It's sort of ironic that after all this time, that's what occurred.”
I really liked what Cena did with the role, and I think it's worth continuing Peacemaker's story since he seems genuinely conflicted about his moral compass even if it points in a negative direction. That's good territory for a series, and I'm curious to see what Gunn and the show's writers have done with the character. Peacemaker will return in his self-titled HBO Max series, which is set to debut in January 2022. The show also stars Danielle Brooks, Chukwudi Iwuji, Christopher Heyerdahl, Hhut Le, Freddie Stroma, and Robert Patrick.
Look for our extended interview with James Gunn soon.