HBO Max Gives Series Order to THE SUICIDE SQUAD TV Spinoff PEACEMAKER

John Cena loves peace so much, he's willing to kill again for it.

According to DC Comics, HBO Max has given a straight-to-series order for Peacemaker, an action-adventure/comedy TV series spinning off from James Gunn's upcoming DC Extended Universe film The Suicide Squad.

The press release states that John Cena will reprise his character Peacemaker/Christopher Smith in an eight-episode first season, with Gunn writing all eight episodes and directing the first and others as well.  Gunn and The Suicide Squad producer Peter Safran, who also produces the Aquaman and Shazam! films, will serve as Peacemaker’s executive producers with Cena as co-executive producer.  Peacemaker is scheduled to begin production in early 2021, before Gunn begins working on the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

There are no details at the moment if the upcoming TV series is set before or after the events of The Suicide Squad, but "the series will explore the origins of the Peacemaker character, a man who believes in maintaining peace at all costs—no matter how many people he needs to kill to do it."

"Peacemaker is an opportunity to delve into current world issues through the lens of this superhero/supervillain/and world’s biggest douchebag," Gunn remarked.  "I’m excited to expand The Suicide Squad and bring this character from the DC film universe to the full breadth of a series.  And of course, to be able to work again with John, Peter, and my friends at Warner Bros. is the icing on the cake."

Cena added, "I have said before that it has been a tremendous honor and an incredible opportunity to be part of The Suicide Squad and to work with James on what is going to be a fantastic movie.  I am unbelievably excited to have the chance to team up with him again for Peacemaker.  We can’t wait for fans to see this."

Created in 1966 by Joe Gill and Pat Boyette, Peacemaker first appeared in Fightin' 5 #40 as Christopher Smith, a pacifist diplomat so committed to peace that he was willing to use force as a superhero to advance the cause.  He used an array of special non-lethal weapons, and also founded the Pax Institute. 

Fighting an assortment of dictators and warlords, Smith later learned that his peace-through-violence efforts were the result of a serious mental illness brought on by the shame of having a Nazi death camp commandant for a father.  He believed his father's spirit haunted him continually and criticized his every move, even as he tried to live down his past.

Becoming a particularly deadly vigilante who would kill at the slightest notice, he started to believe that the ghosts of the people he killed, or who were killed in his vicinity, were collected inside his helmet and could offer him advice and commentary.

For a time, Peacemaker served as a U.S. government agent under Checkmate, a special-forces unit, hunting down terrorists until his own behavior became too extreme.  He eventually crashed a helicopter to destroy tanks controlled by the supervillain Eclipso and was reported dead.

Peacemaker is scheduled to begin production in early 2021.