Peacemaker (DC Extended Universe)
Peacemaker Christopher "Chris" Smith | |
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Peacemaker by | |
Adapted by | James Gunn |
Portrayed by | John Cena Quinn Bennett (young) |
Voiced by | John Cena (Mortal Kombat 1) |
In-universe information | |
Alias | Peacemaker |
Nicknames |
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Occupation |
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Affiliation | United States of America |
Nationality | American |
Abilities |
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Pets | Eagly (bald eagle) Eek Stack Ik Ik "Goff" (alien butterfly) |
Christopher "Chris" Smith, also known as the Peacemaker, is a
As of 2022, the character is a central figure in DC media, having appeared in two projects thus far: the feature film
Character development and execution
Background
In October 2018,
Gunn's Suicide Squad film, eventually titled The Suicide Squad,[5] was intended to act as a relaunch of the IP and characters as opposed to a direct sequel to the previous film directed by David Ayer, that would take the franchise in a new direction and feature a largely new cast. Roven and Peter Safran were set as producers, with Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder as executive producers. Safran had pushed for Gunn to take on the project, feeling that there was no better director than him to "bring together a disparate group of outsiders on a mission".[6]
Adapting Peacemaker to film and television
Among the new characters that would be part of the film's revised team lineup, James Gunn selected the character
Fellow WWE alumni John Cena entered talks to portray the character in April 2019,[9][10] as Gunn had wanted to work with Cena upon seeing his performance in the romantic comedy Trainwreck (2015), and had been looking for an appropriate role for him for a while.[11] Cena had previously auditioned unsuccessfully for roles in both Marvel and DC Comics-based films, notably being rejected for both Cable in Deadpool 2 (2018) and the titular character in Shazam! (2019), in addition to various MCU roles.[12] He would however, be openly passionate about working on a project with James Gunn, reflecting in January 2022 that,
The only reason he gets a free pass is his reputation as a storyteller. He just does not let up, he claws at every piece, and I know it's gonna be good, because he starts from a blank page and that's it. But I always read it, I always read the story to make sure one, I like it, and two, it falls within my skillset. I do want to challenge myself, but I don't want the first time I do something to be on screen for a paying customer. I want to get practice and perform at a level that's consumer quality.[13]
— John Cena
During the promotion of The Suicide Squad, Cena decided to wear the Peacemaker costume for interviews and other promotional events as a way to familiarize the audience with the lesser-known character, which was a tactic that he had previously used when he was a professional wrestler.[14]
After finishing work on The Suicide Squad, Gunn began working on a
Characterization
Cena would describe his character as "a douchey Captain America", with Gunn adding that the character would go to as many lengths as possible to achieve peace.[19] Upon being cast, Gunn would also tell Cena not to read any comics featuring Peacemaker to develop background knowledge with the character, as having a preconceived notion of what the character could be would distract from the story Gunn wanted to tell. Cena would paraphrase Gunn in an interview as saying, "you have what I’m looking for. Just be yourself, and if you’re willing to take direction, I think we can do something special." Cena originally envisioned the character as "a drill sergeant, Full Metal Jacket-esque personality", with the actor being told to change direction and emphasize his "do-gooder side" about 20 minutes into filming his first scene in-costume. Cena during the same interview, would contrast his acting career in regards to this role, to his career as a professional wrestler, stating that "Whenever I play a role in a movie, it really is never myself. Whereas WWE is the odd thing that a lot of times you have to create an extension of yourself because the narrative is just so damn long".[12]
Despite being portrayed as self-righteous, duty-driven, and egotistical in The Suicide Squad and continuing to flaunt that facade in Peacemaker, Smith is in actuality a broken, self-loathing man trying to find a purpose in the world, but is too haunted by the horrible actions he committed to adjust in a normal environment. Smith's time with the 11th Street Kids, as portrayed in the series, allows him to slowly come to terms with his past demons and reconsider his world views, showing his vulnerable side more often to others and learning to process his repressed emotions, but also becoming more emotionally unstable and prone to bursts of anger. Viewers noted that Peacemaker received less character development in The Suicide Squad compared to other characters such as
The decision to make Smith bisexual, confirmed by the penultimate episode of the first season of Peacemaker, was floated by Cena, according to Gunn. He states that "Peacemaker is an interesting character because he's so fucked-up in so many ways, and then in other ways, he is kind of weirdly forward-thinking. John does improv all the time, and he just turned Christopher Smith into this hyper-sexualized dude that is open to anything sexually. I was surprised by that. But I thought, 'I guess it makes sense that this guy isn't one-dimensional.'" Cena examined the history of the character in the comics and determined that with Christopher Smith's childhood struggles and hardships, he would be "willing to do anything to a certain extent."[21]
Fictional character biography
Early life
Christopher "Chris" Smith was born in 1981 in Evergreen, Charlton County,
As he grew up, Chris became mentally unstable, swearing an oath to keep the peace at any cost, regardless of the means he would use to achieve it and how many people he would have to kill. To this end, he created his own uniform and adopted the alias "
Task Force X and Project Starfish
In 2020, an imprisoned Chris, among other criminals, is recruited by
After joining up with survivors from the first squad, Col.
Project Butterfly
Meeting Clemson Murn and encountering a Butterfly
Five months later, Chris is released from intensive care and returns to his
Assassinating the Goff Family
Shunned by the team for the incident, Chris returns home and meets with Chase, during which they collectively discover that a device belonging to Sturphausen is actually a miniature spaceship. The following day, Murn briefs the team on their first ops mission, directing them to assassinate United States Senator Royland Goff and his family, who are presumed to all be Butterflies. Smith and Harcourt infiltrate the Goff home, but Chris hesitates to execute Goff's family. Chase volunteers to do so, but before he can kill Goff, the team is attacked by Goff's bodyguard Judomaster, who knocks out Harcourt and captures Chris and Chase for questioning. Goff attempts to goad Chris into confessing intel by torturing Chase, but Harcourt, Murn, and Adebayo intervene, allowing Chris to free himself and kill Goff while Economos incapacitates the escaping Judomaster. After a butterfly emerges from Goff's corpse, Chris secretly captures it and claims he killed it.
Interrogating Judomaster
As the team bring Judomaster back to their hideout to interrogate him, Chris and Chase learn of Auggie's arrest. Despite Murn and Adebayo telling him otherwise, Chris visits Auggie in prison, where the latter threatens to expose Project Butterfly to the authorities. Following this, Chris and Adebayo discover Judomaster in the midst of escaping. Following a lengthy confrontation between Chris and Judomaster, Adebayo abruptly shoots the latter as he is about to reveal the Butterflies' true purpose. Disillusioned, Chris returns to his trailer and grieves over his having to kill Flag and Keith's death.
Glan Tai infiltration and Butterfly takeover
Auggie pleads his innocence to Song, who deduces Chris killed Sturphausen. Concurrently, Chris is briefed on the Butterflies' parasitic nature and their desire to feed on an amber-like fluid. A discovery Adebayo made the previous night leads Project Butterfly to the Glan Tai bottling facility, where they kill the Butterfly-possessed workers and an escaped zoo gorilla and Chris earns the team's respect. While bonding on the way back, Chris invites Adebayo over to his trailer, where she secretly replaces his personal diary with a replica under Waller's orders.
Song arranges for Auggie's release and Chris' arrest, to the dismay of Deputy Locke, who is secretly collaborating with Murn unbeknownst to the rest of the team. The Goff butterfly attempts to communicate with Chris and Chase just as the Evergreen police come to arrest the former. While escaping to Project Butterfly's hideout with Locke's help, Chase accidentally drops the jar containing "Goff", allowing it to escape and kill and possess Song while Locke receives Chris' diary. As Economos traces the Butterflies' activities to Coverdale Ranch, where the team suspects that they are utilizing a giant alien larva, or "cow", to mass-produce the fluid, Adebayo experiences guilt over hiding confidential information about the operation from Chris and Waller and discovering that Murn is a rogue Butterfly called Ik Nobe Lok who wants to stop his own species, who came to Earth after they killed their own planet. Elsewhere, "Goff" summons an army of Butterflies to possess the Evergreen Police Department and Evergreen Corrections Center while Auggie rallies a group of followers and reassumes his White Dragon alias to kill Chris, who watches a television broadcast wherein the possessed Locke publicly incriminates him using his "diary" and calls for his arrest.
Facing his father and the Cow
Feeling betrayed by his companions, Chris leaves to find and eliminate the "cow" himself. However, the team is intercepted by Auggie and his followers. Chris's pet eagle Eagly attempts to save Chris, only to be injured by Auggie, who nearly executes Chris. Chase exposes a weak point in Auggie's armor, allowing Chris to overpower and reluctantly kill him. Project Butterfly reunite at a nearby veterinary clinic, where Eagly is treated for his injuries and they learn Murn was killed by the Butterfly-possessed police officers. The team elects Harcourt as their new leader, who briefs them on the Butterflies' objective to teleport the "cow" to another enclave and leave to stop them.
Upon reaching Coverdale Ranch, Chris and Chase learn about Adebayo's true parentage and Murn's true identity before the team improvise a plan due to a shortage of time. After Economos fails to remotely kill the Cow, Chris, Harcourt, and Chase launch a frontal assault, eliminating multiple Butterflies, though Harcourt and Chase are grievously injured. Meanwhile, Chris confronts "Goff", who attempts to sway him to the Butterflies' cause by revealing they originally came to Earth seeking refuge before realizing that the planet was at the mercy of humans attempting to profit off of its resources and shifting their goals towards assimilating humanity and guiding them towards peace. Aggravated, Chris launches Adebayo at the Cow using his "human torpedo" helmet so she can destroy it while he kills Butterfly-Locke and Song's body, sparing "Goff".
In the aftermath, Harcourt, Economos, and Chase undergo medical treatment while Adebayo and Chris reconcile. Inspired, she publicly leaks Project Butterfly and Waller's role in Task Force X, clearing Chris' name. As he returns home with Eagly and "Goff" however, he becomes haunted by a hallucination of Auggie.
Other appearances
The DCEU version of Peacemaker appears in Mortal Kombat 1. In his arcade mode ending, sometime after defeating the Butterflies, Chris was tasked with apprehending Eclipso as part of another assignment from Waller codenamed "Project Magician". Despite being sent to the Mortal Kombat universe by Eclipso, an excited Chris opts to stay to bring peace there.
Reception
Cena's portrayal of Christopher Smith / Peacemaker across his appearances in the DCEU has received positive reactions. Speaking on his performance in The Suicide Squad, Katie Rife, writing for The A.V. Club, stated that "Cena once again proves himself to be a talented comedic actor" in the role, describing the character as a "living action figure".[23] Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times would further add that Cena's performance as his "ironically named" character wound up adding "to a terrific ensemble and a deft balance of brains, heart and other viscera".[24] Commenting on the chemistry between Cena's Peacemaker and Idris Elba's character Robert DuBois / Bloodsport, CNET's Richard Trenholm observed that a constant positive throughout the film was "The pair clashing hilariously as they try to one-up each other in homicidal creativity", further complimenting Cena as being "so good and so funny as the uptight Peacemaker, he seems like an entirely different actor from the block of wood who fell off the screen with a dull thunk in this year's Fast and Furious 9".[25]
Critics similarly welcomed Cena's performance in Peacemaker the following year. IGN writer Samantha Nelson observed the progression in characterization in the series, contemplating that "Peacemaker quickly becomes a significantly more sympathetic character than he was in Gunn’s film, even if he is exasperating to his teammates such as Belle Reve warden John Economos (Steve Agee), who Peacemaker constantly accuses of dying his beard." She further comments that "Cena has a great sense of humor and seemingly no shame as he plays a sad-sack heel whose best friend is his bald eagle sidekick, Eagly".[26] Charles Bramesco of The Guardian highlighted Cena as "the show’s strongest attribute", attributing it to "his veiny musculature lending a much-needed weight to face-offs that falter when ramping up the plastic-looking CGI". He likens Cena's presence and prowess in the series to physical comedy, iterating that "the bass has been cranked into the red every time he hits a wall or floor, letting us feel the heaviness of his elephantine body. He’s well-suited to the role as a budding comic performer too, his alpha-man-boy bluster the ideal fit for Gunn’s sophomoric hijinks".[27]
See also
References
The fictional character biography and portions of the characterization were adapted from Peacemaker, The Suicide Squad, and respective pages for episodes of Peacemaker (TV series) at DC Extended Universe Wiki, which are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.
- ^ "10 DC Movie Characters That Walk The Line Between Anti-Hero & Villain". Comic Book Resources. 24 July 2021. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
- ^ Couch, Borys Kit, Aaron; Kit, Borys; Couch, Aaron (2018-07-20). "James Gunn Fired as Director of 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (2018-10-09). "James Gunn Boards 'Suicide Squad 2' To Write And Possibly Direct". Deadline. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ "The Suicide Squad: James Gunn Reconnected With Marvel One Day After Joining DC Movie". Empire. 29 October 2020. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ McClintock, Aaron Couch, Pamela; Couch, Aaron; McClintock, Pamela (2019-01-30). "'The Batman,' 'The Suicide Squad' Set 2021 Release Dates". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "'The Suicide Squad' Producer Explains How the Film Connects to 'Suicide Squad': "We Don't Address It"". Collider. 2021-07-06. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ "Suicide Squad 2: Meet the New Characters James Gunn Will Introduce". Collider. 2019-03-07. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ Hibberd, James. "Zack Snyder reveals a first look at his zombie heist Netflix movie 'Army of the Dead'". EW.com. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ Stevens, Colin (2019-04-17). "John Cena in Talks to Join Suicide Squad Sequel, Margot Robbie Returns as Harley Quinn". IGN. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ Galuppo, Mia (2019-04-17). "John Cena Eyed for Role in 'Suicide Squad' Sequel". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ "The Suicide Squad's James Gunn Reveals Why He Cast John Cena as Peacemaker". TV Shows. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ a b "The Suicide Squad: John Cena and the Secrets of Peacemaker". Den of Geek. 2021-04-28. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ "Peacemaker's John Cena Reveals His Many Marvel and DC Rejections". 2022-01-14. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ^ Garner, Glenn (February 24, 2022). "John Cena on Peacemaker Season 2, Possibilities of a Crossover with Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam". People. Archived from the original on February 24, 2022. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
- ^ ComicBook.com. Archivedfrom the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
- ^ a b White, Peter (September 23, 2020). "'The Suicide Squad' TV Spinoff 'Peacemaker' Starring John Cena From James Gunn Ordered By HBO Max". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
- ^ Weintraub, Steve (August 15, 2021). "James Gunn on 'The Suicide Squad' Deleted Scenes, Creating "Harley-Vision," His Filmmaking Process and More". Collider. Archived from the original on August 15, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
- ^ Bailey, Kat (2022-02-16). "Peacemaker Season 2 Officially Confirmed As Finale Approaches". IGN. Retrieved 2022-03-14.
- ^ "The Suicide Squad FIRST LOOK reveals John Cena as 'Douchey Captain America' aka Peacemaker, Idris Elba & more". PINKVILLA. 2020-08-23. Retrieved 2022-02-05.
- ^ a b Vary, Adam B. (August 7, 2021). "James Gunn on 'The Suicide Squad's' Politics, Getting 'Fired' by Disney and Why He Doesn't Care About Streaming". Variety. Archived from the original on August 10, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
- ^ Ankers, Adele (2022-02-16). "James Gunn Says Peacemaker Is Bisexual Because Of John Cena". IGN. Retrieved 2022-02-19.
- ^ "Peacemaker Episode 5 Confirms He Fought Fan-Favorite Batman Villain". News Concerns. 2022-01-27. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
- ^ "The Suicide Squad is a vulgar and outrageously superior sequel". The A.V. Club. 28 July 2021. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ^ "Review: James Gunn's 'The Suicide Squad' proves there's life after 'Suicide Squad'". Los Angeles Times. 2021-07-28. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ^ Trenholm, Richard. "The Suicide Squad review: Riotous supervillain romp is gleeful, gory and glorious". CNET. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ^ Nelson, Samantha (2022-01-04). "Peacemaker Premiere Review: "A Whole New Whirled," "Best Friend, for Never" and "Better Goff Dead"". IGN. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ^ "Peacemaker review – John Cena mostly sells DC's puerile new series". the Guardian. 2022-01-11. Retrieved 2022-02-04.