The first teaser trailer for HBO Max's The Suicide Squad spinoff Peacemaker debuted at DC FanDome.
The trailer begins with John Cena's Christopher Smith/Peacemaker in the hospital, where we left him in The Suicide Squad after he was shot in the throat by Bloodsport. We're then introduced to characters like Adrian Chase/Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) and Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), as well as returning characters John Economos and Emilia Harcourt (Steve Agee and Jennifer Holland). We even meet Peacemaker's father Auggie (Robert Patrick), who trained his son to be a killer in the first place. The trailer ends by confirming that Peacemaker premieres Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022.
Peacemaker picks up after the events of The Suicide Squad. The show is created by The Suicide Squad writer/director James Gunn, who's also helming several episodes of the first season. While only one season was greenlit, however, Gunn thinks there's more than enough material to work with across multiple seasons.
"At the end of The Suicide Squad, [Idris Elba’s] Bloodsport learns a lot. He's a better person than he was at the beginning," Gunn recently explained. "A lot of the characters are much better than they were at the beginning, and Peacemaker has a lot to learn. It’s that ability to learn that for me makes him a little bit more likable. His blindspots in some places are pretty terrible, and in some places are him being ignorant. I think that’s an important distinction to make as well. He is open at the same time, sometimes."
As for why it was Peacemaker of all characters to receive a spinoff series, Gunn said in August that " it's a number of things. In the movie... Harley gets a really complete story about herself, she gets a complete arc. Bloodsport gets a complete story. Rick Flag gets a complete story. Ratcatcher 2 gets a complete story. They all learn something about themselves -- sometimes good things, sometimes bad things -- but Peacemaker is a douche and he stays a douche and he's an asshole in the movie. But I think there's something below that."
"John and I talked a lot about the character," Gunn continued. "Where he is, how he feels -- you think that Polka-Dot Man's the one who's the outsider, but Polka-Dot Man starts to feel a part of the group. Peacemaker has a harder time with that. He's actually the most disconnected of all those characters."
Peacemaker premieres Jan. 13, 2022, on HBO Max.
Source: YouTube