It’s been a year since HBO’s Peacemaker ended on a stunning cliffhanger. That episode, “Full Nelson”, saw John Cena’s Christopher Smith/Peacemaker in a good place as he embarked on a relationship with Emilia Harcourt only for things to quickly take a turn when Rick Flag Sr. captured him and exiled him to a dimension called Salvation. It left the hero stranded and alone in a strange world with no way back and his future a huge question mark. It left fans wondering when they’d next see Peacemaker as well and while there’s been a lot of hope and speculation that we might get a third season of the series or even see Peacemaker pop up elsewhere in the DCU, Cena has himself now weighted in — and it might be bad news.
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During an appearance on Happy Sad Confused with Josh Horowitz, Cena was asked if he’d put on Peacemaker’s distinctive helmet since the end of the second season. Cena confirmed that he hadn’t with an answer that made it sound like Peacemaker hasn’t been needed in the DCU after that cliffhanger.
“No,” Cena said. “And when I put that helmet on, I told James [Gunn], ‘Dude, I will put this helmet on as long as you need me to.’ I love working with him.”
Is This the End for Peacemaker?
If that answer wasn’t concerning enough, what he said next put an even finer point on things with the suggestion that, right now, Gunn has other things to work with that have put Peacemaker and his predicament lower on the priority list.
“Because you get the whole box of toys, you have to address the really valuable ones first, and I understand that,” Cena said. “I got to step back. Let Superman and Batman get their due.”
One could argue with Cena that Superman and Batman have, over the years, already gotten their due by being the main DC characters to end up in live action and that Peacemaker has proven to be valuable in his own right, but there is some truth to his comments. Gunn’s DCU is very much still in its first stages and ultimately big characters like Superman and Batman are not only huge audience draws (and therefore studio priorities) but they have a wide audience appeal which helps with the establishment of the cinematic universe they’re trying to create. Last year’s Superman was a serious success in that direction and while Supergirl faltered, next year’s Man of Tomorrow is poised to be a significant step forward for the DCU.
Of course, it’s also the success of those “really valuable ones” as Cena put it that could lead to Peacemaker’s return. As we noted, Superman was a success but Supergirl was not. That makes the stakes for Man of Tomorrow higher than ever. If that film turns out to be a success, it could theoretically lead to projects being greenlit or expanded upon. We already know that Skydance has listed films like Batman: Brave and the Bold and Swamp Thing as internal priorities as well as the Deathstroke and Bane movie currently titled Savage Hunters. It’s confirmation that the DCU continues to be a priority for the newly merged Warner Bros. and Paramount. The better those projects do, the better the odds that we’ll see Cena don the Peacemaker helmet again.
What do you think? Let us know your take in the comments.
