James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is poised to give the much-maligned team of antiheroic baddies a second shot at life on both the big and small screens, as John Cena’s overzealous Peacemaker character is the centre in a spinoff series set within the same universe. But a character like the Peacemaker would be nothing without a few outsized personalities to play off, and butt heads with.
Today, Warner Bros. announced a slew of new cast members joining Peacemaker including Chris Conrad as Vigilante — a Punisher-like sharpshooter who turns to brutal crimefighting after his wife and children are murdered — and Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, the same NSA agent she’s portraying in The Suicide Squad. Conrad and Holland are being joined in the cast by Orange Is the New Black’s Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day’s Robert Patrick as as Auggie Smith, neither of whom seem to be prominent characters from DC’s comics.
Based solely on what’s been revealed about Peacemaker so far, there’s a possibility the series, like The Suicide Squad, skews more toward the grounded side of things compared to Warner Bros.’ other DC offerings — but with familiar faces like Harcourt, and the previously cast Steve Agee (sadly not reprising his role as King Shark from The Suicide Squad, but instead his other character in the movie, Belle Reve warden John Economos), maybe there’s space for a few larger-than-life Squad characters to appear too.
Peacemaker is set to begin production soon, ahead of filming early next year.