It looks like Peacemaker actually does care "how many men, women, and children I need to kill" to achieve peace, but he certainly isn't above making fun of someone's appearance. Fortunately, writer-director James Gunn made sure to cast "a very cute little girl" to play the child that Peacemaker insults in Episode 3.
"All that stuff in the back of the van was some stuff we shot pretty early, and it was actually really hard to put together and I wasn't happy with it for a long, long time," Gunn recalled during a press event attended by CBR. "Then eventually, I became pleased with how it turned out. But I also think it's important because we had to address this thing of Peacemaker and his belief that it's okay to kill however many men, women and children he needs to to create peace."
"We also see that a little bit of it is probably a line that he's been saying for a long time that he doesn't really fully believe, that he's not on board with killing kids, yet -- at the same time -- is such a dick as to point out the unattractiveness of one of those children," he continued. "But I will also say that's heavy makeup on that very cute little girl who does not look like that at all. I would never put an ugly little kid in that scene and make fun of them. So she's a very cute, sweet little girl who's very excited to see herself in Peacemaker, and I don't know how her parents are going to show it to her."
In "Better Goff Dead," Peacemaker's third episode, Chris Smith gets sent on his first real mission for A.R.G.U.S.'s Project Butterfly. On the way to assassinate U.S. Senator Goff, he learned he might have to also kill Goff's wife and two children. Although he claimed not to care about killing children in The Suicide Squad, he balked at the thought of assassinating the Goffs, despite how "ugly" the daughter is. Now, Gunn has made it clear he wasn't actually making fun of anyone when he penned that dialogue.
Peacemaker's first three episodes are now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes airing weekly on Thursdays.