The first season of HBO Max’s Peacemaker is well underway, and it is continuing to bring about James Gunn’s unique take on the DC Comics mythos. The series spins out of the events of The Suicide Squad, showcasing the ongoing adventures of the film’s pacifist vigilante, Christopher Smith / Peacemaker (John Cena). Before the first season of the series has even finished airing, Gunn has indicated that not only is a sophomore season of Peacemaker a promising possibility, but he has pitched an additional DC television series to HBO Max. As Gunn revealed, the series would spin out of The Suicide Squad in some capacity, but take on a different tonal approach from Peacemaker.
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“I can’t say anything,” Gunn explained. “It is connected to this universe, and I don’t think it will be the same genre as Peacemaker; it won’t be as much acomedy as Peacemaker, but it will be in the same universe.”
While the news of Gunn developing more The Suicide Squad spinoffs isn’t entirely new, as the writer-director had been teasing as much on social media for months, the fact that Warner Bros. is reportedly “high” on the idea has fans hopeful that the second series could come to fruition. So, what could the potential second The Suicide Squad spinoff be?
First, let’s consider the roster of characters who actually survived the events of The Suicide Squad — in addition to Peacemaker, we definitely see that Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Robert DuBois / Bloodsport (Idris Elba), Cleo Cazo / Ratcatcher II (Daniela Melchior), King Shark (Sylvester Stallone and Steve Agee), and Weasel (Sean Gunn) make it out alive. Gunn has also hinted that T.D.K. (Nathan Fillion) might have somehow survived during the violent beach battle at the start of the film. There’s always a chance that the second spinoff series could be a prequel series revolving around a character who ended up dying in The Suicide Squad — particularly Abner Krill / Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) — but that does feel less likely.
It’s safe to assume that we’ll see more live-action stories of Harley Quinn, but between Robbie’s busy schedule and the fan-favorite status of 2020’s Birds of Prey film, she might stay in the movie domain. Bloodsport also might not be a likely candidate to lead a solo series, given Elba’s schedule and Gunn’s comments about the character having had a pretty complete arc in The Suicide Squad. Out of all of the surviving characters who could spawn their own solo series, Ratcatcher II does seem the most likely — Melchior has courted a ton of praise for her portrayal of the character, and the relatively-obscure DC Comics lore that mantle is associated with could be fun to build a narrative around.
Another likely possibility is that the new spinoff could actually be an ensemble, with a combination of existing The Suicide Squad characters and new villains or antiheroes. A Secret Six series has been high on a number of fans’ wishlist, and it’s easy to imagine a version of the group with any combination of the surviving characters from the film. There are also other groups that feel ragtag enough to be a good fit for former members of The Suicide Squad, whether that be Checkmate, The Outsiders, or otherwise.
At the moment, there’s no way of knowing exactly what the second The Suicide Squad spinoff could end up being. But given the wild adventure that Peacemaker has taken us on thus far, it’s safe to assume that it will be incredibly entertaining.
New episodes of Peacemaker debut Thursdays exclusively on HBO Max.
