One of the most anticipated films of the year was The Suicide Squad by director James Gunn, who also directed the upcoming HBO spinoff, Peacemaker. In true James Gunn fashion, the new Suicide Squad film parodied itself with clever writing and humourous visuals that often presented its characters in embarrassing situations.
One scene that caught a lot of viewers completely off guard was John Cena's Peacemaker appearing nearly nude in a pair of white briefs that were tight enough to reveal an outline of his package. While there were brief glimpses of genitalia in The Suicide Squad (Weasel's and a rebel who was killed by Bloodsport in a killing competition with Peacemaker), none of those scenes caused the internet to blow up quite the way Cena's did, and it's not hard to see why.
Earlier in the film when the new Suicide Squad team led by Bloodsport goes on a rescue mission for Rick Flag, Peacemaker and Bloodsport get into an argument over the latter's ability to make decisions as team leader. This causes Bloodsport to impulsively say "and I decided that you should eat a big bag of dicks." Peacemaker's comeback is his now-iconic response of "if this whole beach was completely covered in dicks, and somebody said I had to eat every dick until the beach was clean for liberty, I would say 'no problemo!'"
While seemingly a one-off joke at first, Peacemaker's response to Bloodsport did establish an important detail about his character: he's comfortable enough with his masculinity that he's completely unthreatened by the presence of dicks or the thought of having to eat them. This then set the precedent for his other famous scene where he was seemingly camping out in his underwear until Ratcatcher II nearly got eaten by King Shark, drawing the attention of his teammates.
It's hard to know for certain if Gunn and Warner Bros. executives anticipated Cena's underwear scene becoming a major talking point of the film amongst fans. All the same, they decided to continue rolling with Cena's package for his upcoming Peacemaker series. In the first teaser trailer for the series, fans are treated to more glimpses of Cena's Peacemaker in his now-iconic white briefs.
In the teaser trailer, Peacemaker is seen putting on his Patrick Swayze moves as he dances comfortably in his home in his underwear. This includes a closeup of his briefs as he moves his hips in a circular motion, as well as a closeup of his torso as he gets further into the groove. Sometime during this dance routine, however, Peacemaker gets interrupted by a seemingly blonde-haired woman in a pink tanktop who manages to knock him off of his feet...literally. The context for the fight is unknown, but all the same, Peacemaker gets tossed through walls and gets his butt handed to him by the woman, effectively playing into the trope of "sex and violence."
In addition to the Peacemaker series revisiting his iconic underwear scene, the teaser also promises more dick jokes alongside Vigilante, who appears to be the DC Extended Universe's Deadpool equivalent. Not only are fans treated to more shots of Cena's briefs in the action sequences, but also his and Vigilante's use of phallic-looking objects.
To see more of John Cena in his underwear, Peacemaker is set to debut on HBO Max on Jan. 13.