Peacemaker: James Gunn Compares One Character to The Office’s Michael Scott

In honor of the fourth episode of Peacemaker, “The Choad Less Traveled,” hitting HBO Max this week, James Gunn and some of the show’s cast took to Twitter last night for a watch party. Over the course of the episode, Gunn spent some time talking about Freddie Stroma, who plays Adrian Chase, the sociopathic costumed killer known as Vigilante. Gunn revealed that he asked Elizabeth Banks to verify whether or not Stroma was an “as*hole” before agreeing to cast him. He also shared a hilarious story about John Cena, who plays the titular role, having no idea Stroma was British the entire time they were filming. Gunn also called Stroma “magic” as well as “a great dude,” and explained why the character Vigilante is similar to The Office‘s Michael Scott (Steve Carrell). 

“I think of Vigilante as a little bit like Steve Carell in the Office. Such a dingus in so many ways but surprisingly good at his job in many moments,” Gunn explained. You can view the tweet below:

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During a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Stroma broke down his approach to playing Vigilante. 

“Basically, I realized pretty early on that this is a departure from the Adrian Chase that the DC world knows,” Stroma explained in our interview. “My brother’s actually given me fifty Vigilante comics. I’m on #12 right now, and I can’t draw any comparisons. This is a completely different character. So, I knew that research into Adrian is more out of respect for the character. As for the actual playing of the role, it’s what was on the page that James wrote. It’s a completely different character. So that’s kind of the direction I went in with that.”

Peacemaker debuted on HBO Max this month, and it’s a hit among critics and fans alike. The show is a follow-up to Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, which hit theaters last year, and sees Cena in the titular role as he joins forces with a new team in order to take down an alien species dubbed “butterflies.” Currently, Peacemaker is up on Rotten Tomatoes with a 94% critics score, which means it’s officially the highest-reviewed project in the entire DCEU. 

In addition to Cena and Stroma, Peacemaker stars Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, Robert Patrick as Auggie Smith, Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, Steve Agee as John Economos, Christopher Heyerdahl as Captain Locke, Chukwudi Iwuji as Clemson Murn, Lochlyn Munro as Larry Fitzgibbon, Annie Chang as Sophie Song, Elizabeth Faith Ludlow as Keeya, and Rizwan Manji as Jamil. 

New episodes of Peacemaker debut on Thursdays exclusively on HBO Max.