See John Cena In The Hilarious Peacemaker Trailer

The Peacemaker trailer gave us our first look at John Cena in the series. This looks like the perfect compliment to The Suicide Squad

By Doug Norrie | Updated

john cena peacemaker

One of the surprise hit characters from this past summer was when John Cena premiered as Peacemaker in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. Cena’s dense bravado, his unyielding ideas around freedom at any cost even when they meant just straight up killing tons of people were a hilarious addition to the DC Universe. From the ridiculous outfit, out-of-place helmet, muscular overcompensation, and clear psychotic issues, John Cena was magnificent. And it only made sense that we would get at least one more story in this world, something focused just on his comedic extremism. It’s coming and on Saturday we had our first extended look at the character in a world before the events of The Suicide Squad. The first trailer for Peacemaker dropped during the DC FanDome event and it looks glorious. 

The two-plus minute trailer drops us right into Peacemaker’s world and his relative origins working with the Amanda Waller crew, many of whom we saw in The Suicide Squad. Leaning even more comedic than this summer’s movie (if that’s even possible), this first extended look at John Cena in the show looks like it might be close to a masterpiece. Check out the first Peacemaker trailer and prepare to love every second of it. 

From the first moment of the trailer, we are aware of what is happening with John Cena here. He’s a disillusioned dude who clearly thinks he’s a superhero even though regular folks in the “real” world have no idea who he is. He’s recruited by Waller’s team made up of a crack squad of relative do-gooders meant to guide him both in the action in missions, but also emotionally as he comes to grips with his place in this universe. There’s Steve Agee as John Economos, Chukwudi Iwuji as Clemson Murn, Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, and newcomer to the DC Universe Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo who is tasked with trying to humanize this hulking mass of arrested development. 

And on the superhero front, joining John Cena as Peacemaker will be Freddie Stroma as Vigilante. The latter is another dude with a particular set of deadly skills and an equally warped sense of the world around him. If anything, he appears even more unbalanced than Peacemaker which is really saying something. Putting the two together turns into what looks like a sophomoric bloodbath. 

This new series is also set to explore some of why John Cena’s Peacemaker became as screwed up as possible. Much of that stems from his relationship with his father, here played by Robert Patrick. It’s anything but a loving relationship with Cena clearly searching for guidance and affection, neither of which he’ll find from Patrick’s character. At least it comes in the form of pet love with his Eagle, brainlessly named Eagley giving Cena a hug at the end. 

From this early look, Peacemaker is going to be a tour-de-force of eight episodes on HBO Max. The limited series was penned by James Gunn and he’ll be directing most of the episodes as well. John Cena and company are set to hit the streamer on January 13, 2022, with the first three episodes planned on releasing all at once. That’s a bit different than what the streamer has done in the past. But this character deserves it and we could have a massive hit on our hands.