With Peacemaker now streaming on HBO Max, I recently spoke with writer-director James Gunn about making the fantastic series. During the interview, he talked about why he didn’t want anyone to see Episode 8 (the season finale) early, using the Wig Wam song “Do You Wanna Taste It” in the awesome opening credits, giving Peacemaker a bald eagle named Eagly as a best friend, if he writes with budget in mind, why he always gives himself more time in the shoot to film the 3rd act, and more. In addition, he talked about how Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is going, the status of the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and his other DC TV project.
As most of you know, Peacemaker picks up after the events of The Suicide Squad. The film’s post-credit scene showed how the anti-hero survived Idris Alba's Bloodsport shot to the throat and how Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller still was not done using him in her mysterious plans. Gunn has written all eight episodes of the series and directs five of the show’s episodes. Also directing will be Jody Hill, Rosemary Rodriguez, and Brad Anderson.
In addition to John Cena returning as Peacemaker, the series will also see the return of The Suicide Squad’s Steve Agee’s John Economos and Jennifer Holland’s Emilia Harcourt. Peacemaker also stars Freddie Stroma as Vigilante, Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, Chukwudi Iwuji as Clemson Murn, and Robert Patrick as Peacemaker’s father.
Watch what James Gunn had to say in the player above, or you can read the transcript below.
COLLIDER: Let me first start by saying how much I enjoyed this series, and how pissed I am I can't watch episode eight right now.
JAMES GUNN: Oh dude, wait till you see it. It is everything. Episode eight is my favorite.
Well, my question, and this is not a spoiler-related thing, but HBO Max and you, you sent out the first seven of the eight episodes. Was episode eight held back because the effects are not done or because of spoilers?
GUNN: Spoilers. I wouldn't let them put out eight. They wanted to put out all eight. I said, "No way. No chance in hell are we putting out all eight." There's just too many things happen in episode eight that I just could not let it get out there. It would absolutely be spoiled. You know, I wouldn't even let them give it to one place or anything like that because it just wasn't... I didn't want it to be out there.
You mentioned previously that you were doing another DC, or thinking about another DC project besides Peacemaker, since no one's recording this, any chance you want to tell me?
GUNN: You know, we're stepping forward. It keeps happening. We'll see what's happening, and I'll know what's happening very shortly. I dealt with it last night and this morning.
Can I ask if it's TV or movie?
GUNN: It's TV. There you go.
I love the opening credits. I am just curious, how long have you been holding Do You Wanna Taste It by Wig Wam in your pocket for a project?
GUNN: Well, I've always liked that song. I never knew that I was going to use it, but somehow it did come to me instantly. I started keeping, long before I started writing the show, when I was just planning out the show, I started keeping a hair metal list of songs that I wanted to use, and that was right at the top of the list. It really came... It seemed perfect for the show. I mean, the lyrics were perfect. The sound of it was perfect, and I knew it would make for a great dance routine at the beginning of the show in an effort to vanquish the skip forward button so that all the wonderful people that work so hard on the show could have their names be seen by the folks at home.
I've watched seven episodes. I've watched those opening credits in every episode because they're so good. Please tell me you have a longer version of it.
GUNN: I don't. I do not have a longer version, but I do love... You know, one of the things I love about it, is how it plays differently. You watch it in episode one, or you watch it in episode seven where you're coming out of a totally different kind of scene, it plays completely differently. That's one of the things that I love about it. The choreography was done by a woman named Charissa Barton, who got right away what I wanted to do with it and was a fantastic collaborator.
I love Eagly, like everyone else is going to love Eagly. At any point during the shoot, were you like, "What the hell was I thinking putting a bald eagle as his partner?"
GUNN: No, I loved it. I knew he was going to steal the show. I'm like, "Take it from the guy who had baby Groot.” Or, even the first Groot. The first Groot when we had him on set, everybody just took it for granted that this guy was there. And then all of a sudden the movie comes out and everybody loves this character that nobody gave two thoughts about on set. I'm like, "Eagly's going to steal the show. Everybody's going to love Eagly." I'm like, "You were great in that scene, Jen. You were amazing, but unfortunately you're in the scene with Eagly, so he's the one that people are going to be talking about in that scene." They just have to deal with it. Eagly's the true star of the show.
How was it, because you've obviously come from working in lower budget environments and you've worked in massive budget environments, when you were writing Peacemaker, was there any thought in your mind about the budget or were you sort of just writing with whatever you wanted to write and I'll deal with it later?
GUNN: No. I innately think about budget while I'm writing, always. Even something as big budgeted as (GOTG) Volume 3 is still a struggle. You know, it's still a struggle to make it fit the budget because you want a movie to be half a billion dollars. If I had half a billion dollars, I could kind of do pretty close to what I want. That's how hard it is. I'm always having to think about budget and make concessions because of budget, but oftentimes it leads to good things. You oftentimes are forced to rethink something and you have to come up with a creative solution.
Usually I think those budget considerations make a difference. We had a very good budget on Peacemaker, but it isn't Suicide Squad. And, we didn't have the time. It was time too. I had to shoot eight episodes before I went and shot Guardians, and I didn't have all the time you in the world to do that, especially since a couple of changes that came up, that I had to shuffle, we went a little bit longer than I originally intended to go.
But yes, the answer is, yes. I do think a little bit about budget. It's not a low budget show by any stretch of the imagination, but it also... I had to think a little bit about what we were shooting and when.
Well, that's the other thing, is that with a movie you might have three days to shoot something. On Peacemaker, you probably have to get it done in one day.
GUNN: That's right. Yes. That's totally true. Or a couple days or whatever. Our action sequences, we try to take the time with them. I have a philosophy on movie making that is probably my best contribution to filmmaking. And that is, you take half of your movie to shoot the first two acts, and the other half of the movie, you shoot the third act. That is the way that a third act works better than the first two acts, and most movies don't do it. They structure the same amount of time through the whole movie for a scene.
I think that for a movie to really build, you need more time to shoot the third act. I did that here, too. With some of the action sequences, we took a little more time. And then the eighth episode is pretty enormous. It's enormous.
Of course, I'm going to ask you, how is the shoot going for Guardians 3, and what can you tease fans?
GUNN: It's going great. Chukwudi, who plays Murn in Peacemaker, is one of the main characters in the movie and people are freaking out over how good this guy is. Literally freaking out. I think that I'm really happy. I gave a bunch of scenes to Marvel right before Christmas break. Kevin went... They were all really, really, really stoked. But also, it's not going to be the movie people... It's different than what people are going to expect. It's a hard road, but I'm really happy with it so far.
Have you started filming the holiday special yet or is that still upcoming in the shoot?
GUNN: It's still upcoming in the shoot. We were supposed to shoot one day in LA, and there's too much Omicron around, so we couldn't do it. We're going to have to fit it in. I haven't started yet. I'm excited to. It's fun. The holiday special is... I'm almost jealous of it, even though I wrote it because people freak out so much on how much they love the script for the holiday special that I'm almost like, "Well, wait. I've got this movie here I've been working on for two years. You love the holiday special that I literally wrote in a very short amount of time." But, it is really funny and really good.
Your name's on both. You're going to still get credit.
GUNN: Yeah, yeah. That's true.
I'm just going to say congrats on the series, and I wish you nothing but the best.
GUNN: Thanks, dude. I'll talk to you soon. Take care.