The first three episode of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad spinoff, Peacemaker, are available on HBO Max, and they likely have convinced viewers that the show is very different from the tone that they experienced in the super-villain team up. For starters, Gunn’s writing in the series is far more sympathetic to John Cena’s character, Peacemaker, who has daddy issues and is growing tired of killing people as a full-time assignment. As the season progresses, the details of Project Butterfly will emerge and take the story in crazy new directions, but if we want to see Gunn’s favorite episode of the show, we’re going to have to wait until the very end.
James Gunn and his Peacemaker cast caught up with CinemaBlend as the show made its way to HBO Max, and while discussing what to expect from the season, they kept bringing up episode eight, the finale of the first season. And here’s one way that I can tell you that episode eight is so off-the-wall, it’s the only one HBO didn’t share with journalists in preparation for the press day. So yeah, we expect things to get gonzo… and this is why it made sense when James Gunn told us:
I knew the general story as I wrote it. I knew where we were going to end up. I knew where we were starting. Some things changed along the way as I was writing it. But I did write the episodes in order, so the story kind of unraveled in front of me as I was writing it. Although, like I said, I did know what the ending was, and that’s my favorite episode of all, is eight. … You’re not prepared for it.
At this point, I’ve been lucky enough to see six of the Peacemaker episodes, and I am shocked out how the Butterfly storyline evolves. So when Gunn teases out the finale, I’m literally salivating waiting to see what he has in store. So is co-star Steve Agee, who plays A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economus and was on set during the filming of episode eight. But he tells a very funny story about his post-production work, and the extent to which HBO was protecting spoilers.
The way Agee explains it, he had to go in a re-record dialogue for the finale – a common practice. When he finished, he asked the editors to just let the episode play out, so he could see how the ending of Peacemaker looked on screen. And they refused to show him. Agee told CinemaBlend:
Because this episode is bonkers. There’s a reason they’re not showing it to you. And I was like, ‘Hey, can you fast forward a little bit so I can see the finished product?’ And they were like, ‘Absolutely not.’ And I was like, ‘I was there! You’re not going to spoil anything.’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, but there’s people in the room who don’t know.’
That’s a terrific tease. Now that the first three episodes of Peacemaker are out, the show begins to drop new episodes once a week, every Thursday. And that means the James Gunn-directed finale lands on HBO Max on February 17, so you have until then to catch up.
