James Gunn clarifies 'Peacemaker' series plan, how it fits with The Suicide Squad ending

The incredibly positive reception to The Suicide Squad has pretty much assured that writer/director James Gunn will return to the DC sandbox at some point once he's done shooting Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 for Marvel Studios. Here's the best part, though: fans won't have to wait long for the filmmaker's next foray into Warner Bros.' onscreen comic book universe because Gunn already has a spinoff TV series about John Cena's Peacemaker in the can and coming to HBO Max within the next few months.

***WARNING! The following contains spoilers for The Suicide Squad!***

Until now, many of us figured the show would serve as a prequel origin story for the douchey interpolation of Captain America. However, The Suicide Squad's post-credits scene reveals that our assumption was only half-true. The character will be tasked with saving the world after his near-fatal standoff with Bloodsport (Idris Elba) in Jotunheim on Corto Maltese. Speaking with Variety, Gunn clarified some of the project's general plot beats.

"Well, through the story, you learn where Peacemaker came from," he explained. "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. 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. He seems sort of irredeemable in the film. But I think that there’s more to him. We didn’t get a chance to know him [in The Suicide Squad] in the way we get to know some of the other characters. And so, that’s what the whole show is about. I needed eight episodes to do it, at least."

The director added that the series finds the character trying to reconcile his overzealous notions about freedom and peace with an unprecedented desire to be accepted by others. "Peacemaker feels like he’s on the outside," Gunn continued. "So that moment in [the bar] La Gatita Amable, when he’s dancing with [the team], and they’re becoming connected to each other for the first time — that is an unusual feeling for him. And then when he goes with his ideals over that sense of connection — his weird ideals, admittedly — he’s making that choice over his own emotions. The show is about that."

Peacemaker is expected to bring its unique style of patriotism to HBO Max before the year is out.

The Suicide Squad is now playing in theaters and on HBO Max. The film slightly underwhelmed at the North American box office with $26.5 million. This is mostly likely due to the fact that audiences are opting to watch the movie at home in light of spiking COVID-19 cases across the country. It did a little better overseas with $35 million for a global debut of $72 million.