Last month, Christopher Smith officially made his live-action debut in The Suicide Squad, which was played by John Cena (F9, Bumblebee). Despite appearing to die at the hands of Bloodshot, the end credits scene revealed that Peacemaker was still alive. According to James Gunn himself, we’ll finally get to understand the titular character throughout the eight-part series on HBO Max: “Well, through the story, you learn where Peacemaker came from,” Gunn told Variety. “There’s a moment in [The Suicide Squad] where Bloodsport talks about his father and what his father was like, and you cut to a shot of Peacemaker, and Peacemaker nods. That’s the seed of the entire Peacemaker series. So we get to see Peacemaker with his father, who’s played by Robert Patrick, where he came from, what he’s done, what that means to him, and where he’s going after all of this. Because he’s not an evil person, he’s just a bad guy. He seems sort of irredeemable in the film. But I think that there’s more to him. We didn’t get a chance to know [in The Suicide Squad] in the way we get to know some of the other characters. And so that’s what the whole show is about. I needed eight episodes to do it, at least.”
Based on James Gunn’s interview, we’ll truly get to understand Peacemaker to see what makes him tick. Christopher Smith/Peacemaker originally made his comic book debut back in the Fightin’5 #40 issue in 1966, which was published by Charlton Comics. While Gunn didn’t exactly say that he would mimic Peacemaker’s story from the comics, one can assume the filmmaker will heavily borrow from the original source material. However, based on The Suicide Squad film, there are several lingering questions that need to be addressed in the live-action show. Let’s explore the issues that the new Peacemaker live-action tv show should address.
Peacemaker’s Willingness To Kill For “Peace”
The juxtaposition of the character and his name has been made clear in the live-action film thus far. How can a guy who represents peace be such a murderous bastard? In The Suicide Squad, we don’t get to know much about Christopher Smith. However, in the comics, the titular bad guy has an interesting backstory that answers why he kills. Once DC Comics acquired the character, Peacemaker’s status was the son of an Austrian industrialist who happened to be a secret Nazi war criminal. Wait, it gets crazier. Mr. Smith was mentally scarred after witnessing the suicide of his father. Smith would join the army, but because of his hallucinations of his insane Nazi criminal father, he would lead a full-on massacre of an innocent village. Long story short, his mental illness is what drives Peacemaker’s heinous actions.
The comic book hero has good and noble intentions, but his obsession with peace makes him view murder as an okay option. Peacemaker’s backstory would make for a fantastic season alone. Based on the recently leaked pictures, the series won’t be focusing much on his past too much, but hopefully, the writers don’t simply gloss over his upbringing. Gunn doesn’t have to follow the exact story of Peacemaker’s past, but it would be a shame if he changed this juicy piece of his history. There were no indications that Peacemaker was suffering from any hallucinations. Perhaps Gunn didn’t want two of his characters within The Suicide Squad dealing with hallucinations. Maybe the filmmaker penned a different story for Christopher Smith? Whatever route Gunn and the writers choose to go; hopefully it’s as compelling as his original backstory.
Why Peacemaker Was Willing To Help Amanda Waller And The Government Hide Project Starfish
Obviously, his mental illness has something to do with his actions in The Suicide Squad; however, what did Amanda Waller do to get Peacemaker on her side? It could be as simple as Waller threatens to ruin Christopher Smith’s life, in the same way she did Bloodshot. Or, it could something more complicated. Again, we don’t exactly know the live-action Peacemaker’s backstory, thus it’s kind of hard to understand what code he truly lives by (other than being obsessed with peace). Perhaps Waller used Peacemaker’s obsession with peace to her advantage? Maybe she promised to erase his heinous crimes from the history books? Or perhaps Waller decided to back project peacemaker? There’s plenty of directions that the show can go with this and while I don’t expect a lengthy arc over this mystery, it should still make for some fascinating television.
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