Where You CAN See John Cena as Peacemaker on January 14

Where You CAN See John Cena as Peacemaker on January 14
Contributor: Leah J. Williams and Zachariah Kelly
At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

John Cena’s Peacemaker was one of the stand-out characters of DC’s new smash hit, The Suicide Squad — and if you can’t get enough of him, the good news is we’ll see plenty more in the Peacemaker TV spin-off, coming to Binge this January.

Here’s everything we know about the show so far, including when we’ll be able to watch it in Australia.

Peacemaker: Release Date

Currently, Peacemaker is set to air on January 13, 2022, with episodes airing first on HBO Max in the United States. Binge has confirmed it will also be getting the series in January.

The first three episodes will be available to stream on January 13, with the remaining five episodes available to stream on Binge weekly on Thursdays, with the season finale available on February 17.

The first season of the show will have eight episodes, although writer/director/creator James Gunn has teased a second season.

Peacemaker: Cast

So far we know of three key Suicide Squad members joining the Peacemaker cast: John Cena himself as Christopher Smith / Peacemaker, Steve Agee as John Economos (one of Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad aides) and Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt (another part of the Suicide Squad logistics team).

They’ll be joined by Danielle Brooks as co-lead Leota Adebayo, Robert Patrick as Peacemaker’s father Auggie Smith, and Freddie Stroma as Adrian Chase / Vigilante, who Arrow fans will be very familiar with.

Rounding out the cast is genre-extraordinaire Christopher Heyerdahl, Lochlyn Munro, Annie Chang, Elizabeth Ludlow, Rizwan Manji, Alison Araya, Lenny Jacobson, and Nhut Le as Judomaster, one of DC’s martial arts-themed heroes.

Here, have some trailers

In the leadup to Peacemaker’s release, HBO Max has released a trailer.

If you’re craving more, here’s an exclusive clip that was released a little earlier.

We also have a behind-the-scenes look at the series thanks to this video.

What’s Peacemaker about?

According to Gunn, Peacemaker will continue the violent tone of The Suicide Squad in a new, more grounded story.

“There are a lot of similarities to The Suicide Squad in that it’s no holds barred, but there are also a lot of things that are very different, in that it’s quieter in some ways,” Gunn told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview. “It’s very specifically about a different group of people, so it’s a little bit more about society.”

dc suicide squad peacemaker tv spin-off
Image: Warner Bros. / HBO

Given there won’t be any giant, sentient starfish floating around, Peacemaker doesn’t really have to do much work to be ‘quieter’ than The Suicide Squad.

As Gunn describes, it’s still set to take place within a “big science-fiction storyline” so the term “grounded” is used a bit loosely in this case. Still, what little details we do have are very exciting.

How does Peacemaker connect to The Suicide Squad?

While Peacemaker was initially announced as a prequel series, it appears this may have changed.

Welcome to the spoiler zone. (Graphic: Jim Cooke)

Given John Cena’s Peacemaker survives the end of The Suicide Squad (as seen in a post-credits scene) it was natural to assume his fate would be told in the Peacemaker spin-off.

Now, James Gunn has confirmed Peacemaker will act as both a sequel and a prequel, with scenes set in the future and past. So while we can expect the show to explore Peacemaker’s origins, it’ll also act as a continuation of The Suicide Squad and follow Peacemaker after he recovers from being shot by Idris Elba’s Bloodsport.

As far as audiences know, he still has the Suicide Squad chip implanted in his brain (and therefore could be killed at any time) but outside of his recovery, we don’t know where his character will go or how he’ll be used in the upcoming spin-off outside of hints from James Gunn.

“There’s a moment in the movie where Bloodsport talks about his father and what his father was like, and you cut to a shot of Peacemaker, and Peacemaker nods,” Gunn recently explained to Variety.

“That’s the seed of the entire Peacemaker series. So we get to see Peacemaker with his father, who’s played by Robert Patrick, where he came from, what he’s done, what that means to him, and where he’s going after all of this. Because he’s not an evil person, he’s just a bad guy.”

This article has been updated with additional information and we’ll continue to add changes as soon as we learn more.