Albany Times Union (Sunday)

Power up: ‘Peacemaker’ wraps up first season

- By Kyla Brewer

Looks can be deceiving. Upon first glance, TV’s latest superpower has all the hallmarks of a hero: a chiseled jaw, bulging muscles, a fancy suit and even a sidekick. Yet on the inside, he’s a bit of a hot mess — though that’s exactly why audiences seem to relate to him.

John Cena (“Bumblebee,” 2018) stars as Chris Smith, aka Peacemaker, in the season finale of “Peacemaker,” airing Thursday, Feb. 17, on HBO Max. The series is a spinoff of the hit 2021 action flick “The Suicide Squad,” in which Cena was first seen as the titular character. Peacemaker believes in peace at any cost, even if it means killing people to get it.

The show picks up months after the movie left off. Peacemaker has recovered from the injuries he sustained in the film only to be pulled back into a life of conflict when he’s recruited to a mysterious black-ops squad by intelligen­ce officer Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, “How to Get Away with Murder”), head of Task Force X, aka the Suicide Squad.

Given a choice between returning to jail or tackling an alien threat in a mission known as Project Butterfly, Peacemaker reluctantl­y agrees to the mission. While traditiona­l superheroe­s would jump at the chance to save the world, Peacemaker is less than enthusiast­ic. In a January interview with Fandom.com’s Eric Goldman, Cena explained what his character is going through.

“Peacemaker is a dude who has had a series of events, which has made him question his entire life,” Cena said. “And I think that’s very relevant to a lot of us.”

Creator and director James Gunn (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” 2014) obviously agrees. He was reportedly inspired by Cena’s portrayal of Peacemaker while filming “The Suicide Squad” and wrote the spinoff during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown. It was ordered straight to series by HBO

Max in September 2020 and filmed in Vancouver between January and July 2021.

 ?? ?? Danielle Brooks and Jennifer Holland star in "Peacemaker"
Danielle Brooks and Jennifer Holland star in "Peacemaker"
 ?? ?? Élodie Yung stars in “The Cleaning Lady”
Élodie Yung stars in “The Cleaning Lady”

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