Peacemaker: James Gunn Reveals How Long the Opening Dance Number Took to Film

Peacemaker arrived on HBO Max on Thursday with the first three episodes of the DC series making their debut and while there's a lot about the James Gunn created series that fans can't stop talking about, perhaps the biggest is the show's opening credits. The non-traditional opening credits features the cast of Peacemaker breaking out some moves in a hilarious, choreographed dance number to Wig Wam's "Do Ya Wanna Taste It", complete with John Cena as serious as ever in his Peacemaker costume. Gunn shared the the full sequence on social media on Friday and has previously encouraged viewers not to skip it and now, he's revealing just how long the dance number took to film.

During Friday's Peacemaker Party viewing event hosted by DC Comics on Twitter, a fan asked how many takes were needed to film the dance scene and while Gunn didn't give an exact number of takes, he did give a time frame.

"We shot for one day in a high school auditorium," Gunn wrote.

Gunn also gave a bit more information about the sequence in the official Podly: The Peacemaker Podcast.

"That was in the script from the beginning. There's a woman by the name of Charissa Barton who I hired to do the choreography for us…She did a fantastic job," Gunn said. "I really just wanted something very, very weird. I remember [Leota Adebayo actor] Danielle Brooks coming to me and going, 'What are we doing? What is this? And I'm like, 'Just look totally serious. You're not having fun, just be very, very, very, very serious,' (Laughs) And telling Charissa, 'We gotta make the dance as ridiculous as it could possibly be while they remain completely serious.'"

He added, "Charissa really helped me to put that together, she was the one that designed it, and she did an amazing job."

Gunn also noted that there's a hidden meaning in Barton's choreography, something that will become more clear once all eight episodes of Peacemaker have aired on HBO Max.

"One of the fun things that you'll see as you watch the episodes of the series is [the opening credits] plays a different role in every episode," Gunn teased. "I know people are going to be able to skip over it — I hope they don't — because it plays a different role in every [episode]. It just always tells a different story. You'll see as our story gets darker, and deeper, and more sad, that the dance itself kind of becomes more sad and more serious and less funny. So it's interesting to see in that way."

Starring John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Jennifer Holland, Chukwudi Iwuji, Steve Agee, and Robert Patrick, new episodes of DC's Peacemaker premiere Thursdays on HBO Max. 

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