So far, Cena has starred in three films this year, including James Gunn’s DCEU debut, The Suicide Squad. Although the film was not a big success at the box office, Cena is already guaranteed a future in the film franchise with the spin-off TV show, Peacemaker. The Cena-led TV show will follow up on the events of the first film as it explores Peacemaker’s origins and why he is so desperate to achieve peace by all means necessary. After HBO Max gave audiences their first look at Peacemaker, Gunn, and Cena have started to reveal more about the upcoming HBO Max TV show.
Cena on listening to BTS and filming Peacemaker
In an exclusive panel for TCA 2021, the Vacation Friends actor compared filming Peacemaker to his career as a WWE wrestler. He added that, just like in the WWE where Cena thought he was the hero, Peacemaker thinks of himself as a savior too. However, not everyone else sees it that way. Similar to how Cena sometimes plays the role of an antagonist in the WWE, the rest of the world doesn’t see Peacemaker as how he sees himself. In the same discussion, Cena also shared how he frequently listened to BTS while on the set of The Suicide Squad. He added that he went through a phase where he listened to the popular South Korean mega group.
— Meghan O’Keefe (@megsokay) September 22, 2021 In the original DC comics and in his lone feature film so far, Peacemaker is depicted as a “violent extremist” who doesn’t care for the cost of peace. Cena’s portrayal of the conflicted anti-hero captured this perfectly in The Suicide Squad. Midway through the movie, Peacemaker sides with Amanda Waller and was willing to take out the rest of the Task Force X to prevent word of the United States’ involvement in Project Starfish from going out. Of course, we’ll probably get a chance to know more about the character’s morality and how he came to be once the show airs in January 2022. Hopefully, viewers flock to it as there are already plans for Peacemaker to go on beyond just a single season. In other news, Cena probably isn’t done playing superheroes just yet. If his time as Peacemaker in the DCEU is cut short, he’s already expressed his interest to take on the role of The Thing in a future MCU film.
