Newly-released Peacemaker footage has provided fans with their best look yet at a fully-costumed Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), who will appear in the series as a foil to Peacemaker and teammate to him on their special operations unit. Fans have taken to social media to praise the comics-accurate costume — something that happened on Arrow, as well, suggesting that there’s something about the look of Vigilante that translates well to a live-action setting — and filmmaker James Gunn has cautioned them to be careful: after all, John Cena does seem to have an unnatural attachment to that Peacemaker costume.
The exact nature of Vigilante’s role is unknown. What is known is that he will not be the only DC hero who appears on Peacemaker, with some other Charlton Comics heroes expected to play a role.
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You can see some of the images in a tweet from Gunn below.
Vigilante, real name Adrian Chase, first appeared in New Teen Titans #23 in September of 1982. When The Suicide Squad was in production, a rumor suggested Idris Elba would be playing this character, before it was revealed he would be Bloodsport instead. On Arrow, the character of Vigilante ended up intertwined with two long-running mysteries.
In season five of that show, Josh Segarra was cast in the role of Adrian Chase. At the same time he first appeared, two mysterious characters made their debut on the show: the villainous Prometheus, and the antihero Vigilante. Fans of course assumed that Chase was Vigilante, as he was in the comics, but instead that turned out to be a misdirect. Chase was instead Prometheus, with the mystery of who Vigilante really was carried on for quite a long time after that.
The character of Vigilante on Peacemaker will be played by Bridgerton’s Freddie Stroma, who stepped in to replace Chris Conrad, who left due to creative differences with the producers.
“Peacemaker is an opportunity to delve into current world issues through the lens of this superhero/supervillain/and world’s biggest douchebag,” Gunn said when the series was announced. “I’m excited to expand The Suicide Squad and bring this character from the DC film universe to the full breadth of a series. And of course, to be able to work again with John, Peter, and my friends at Warner Bros. is the icing on the cake.”
“I have said before that it has been a tremendous honor and an incredible opportunity to be part of The Suicide Squad and to work with James on what is going to be a fantastic movie,” Cena said. “I am unbelievably excited to have the chance to team up with him again for Peacemaker. We can’t wait for fans to see this.”
