Peacemaker Behind the Scenes Reveals "Real" Eagly on Set With John Cena

By Cameron Bonomolo

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Peacemaker Episode 7, "Chapter 7: Stop Dragon My Heart Around." Seeing himself hug Peacemaker's pet eagle, Eagly, made John Cena's heart soar. The heartwarming moment happens inside a veterinary hospital, where the trained attack bird (voice of Dee Bradley Baker) recovers from wounds sustained in battle with the armored supervillain The White Dragon (Robert Patrick). In an interview on HBO Max's post-show Podly: The Peacemaker Podcast, Cena revealed what it was like to embrace an eagle — or, at least, a prop stand-in for the CG-animated Eagly. 

"Being hugged by a bald eagle, when you see it in CGI, is pretty dope," Cena said. "In my real world, that was a memory foam bowling pin-shaped gray object. So when I see that, I have a different experience. But I like seeing me getting hugged by an eagle." 

"I just saw an eagle hug a human," an awe-struck Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) says after witnessing the real-life "miracle." Below, see the real-life Eagly: 

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(Photo: HBO Max)

Steve Agee, who plays John Economos, revealed another on-set look at another Eagly prop during Saturday's Peacemaker watch party on Twitter. In the BTS snap from the sequence pitting Peacemaker and Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) against White Dragon and the White Hoods, Agee gives Eagly the bird: 

In a previous interview, series creator and writer James Gunn explained why Peacemaker's Eagly is CGI (and not played by an animal actor). 

"We actually brought an eagle onto the set at the very beginning of production, and the eagle was absolutely having none of it," Gunn told CinemaBlend. "And I'm like, 'I can't. This guy is so sad right now! I can't do it with this guy. This poor eagle is being terrorized.' And I'm like, 'He doesn't want to be here.' So we made him CGI. Weta did it, who has done a lot of visual effects for my movies." 

Starring John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Jennifer Holland, Chukwudi Iwuji, Steve Agee, and Robert Patrick, Peacemaker is now streaming on HBO Max. The Suicide Squad spin-off next airs its season finale, "Chapter 8: It's Cow or Never," Thursday, February 17 on HBO Max. 

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