Like most things built by human hands, James Gunn‘s The Suicide Squad isn’t big enough to fit all of John Cena, so his character, Peacemaker, is getting his own spin-off series/origin story on HBO Max. While the exact nature of the series is still under wraps, the streaming service just announced a few more names who will join Cena, each one adding a new layer of hype.
Orange Is the New Black alum Danielle Brooks will co-star as a character named Leota Adebayo, joined by Terminator 2: Judgement Day actor Robert Patrick as Auggie Smith. Jennifer Holland (Brightburn) is also reprising the role of Emilia Harcourt from The Suicide Squad, while Chris Conrad (Patriot) is playing Adrian Chase, a.k.a. the DC Comics bounty hunter known as Vigilante. Steve Agee has already been confirmed to reprise one of his two roles from The Suicide Squad.
Gunn wrote all eight episodes of Peacemaker and will direct a few of the episodes, including the premiere. Cena and Peter Safran (Shazam!) are co-executive producing the series, which will “explore the origins of the character that Cena will play in the upcoming film, a man who believes in peace at any cost — no matter how many people he has to kill to get it.”
As for The Suicide Squad, the semi-sequel-but-not-quite-a-reboot is currently slated to hit theaters on August 6, 2021. The film is bringing back Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, and Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flagg, while introducing some new faces to the crew, like Idris Elba‘s Bloodsport, Daniela Melchior‘s Ratcatcher II, and David Dastmalchian‘s Polka-Dot Man. If the first teases are anything to go by, most of them are going to die horribly.
via Collider