Jennifer Holland is best known for playing Emilia Harcourt in The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, both of which come from the creative mind of James Gunn, her husband. Additionally, Holland also cameoed as her character in two non-Gunn-helmed DCEU movies, Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Regarding the former, Holland opened up to CinemaBlend about both she and Gunn were confused about Harcourt’s presence in the 2022 DC movie, and I agree with them about this.
After chatting with Jennifer Holland about Peacemaker matters, like what it’s like playing two versions of Emilia Harcourt, and how the main Harcourt feels conflicted about Season 2’s latest curveball, I asked the actress what her experience was like working on Black Adam and the Shazam! sequel since Gunn wasn’t the one writing or directing the character like before. After Holland speculated that she was brought on to Black Adam because Viola Davis couldn’t do that scene instead, be it for cost or scheduling reasons, she said:
… Kudos to them, they were trying to connect things. Things were totally disconnected at the time and they were trying to connect things. And yeah, none of it made sense. There's no reason Harcourt would be working in an underwater prison. It’s all silly in terms of like timeline stuff and everything… It’s like, whatever.
Emilia Harcourt was introduced in The Suicide Squad as a minot character working directly under Amanda Waller’s supervision at Belle Reve alongside Steve Agee’s John Economos. Then Peacemaker saw her and Economos being assigned to Project Butterfly and having to work with John Cena’s Christopher Smith (who, as it turned out, killed Harcourt’s only friend). Then when Black Adam came out, Harcourt was suddenly running the underwater Task Force X prison in Antarctica where Dwayne Johnson’s Teth-Adam was placed in stasis.
Although I didn’t think anything about it at the time, in hindsight, it was strange that Emilia Harcourt was put on this detail. Also, Viola Davis was already reprising Amanda Waller in Black Adam, albeit with her scenes only occurring over video call. I realize there sometimes issues that can’t be solved, but Waller would have been a much better fit for this scene. Regardless, James Gunn, who’s now running DC Studios with Peter Safran, was also baffled by how Black Adam used Harcourt, as Holland continued:
James didn't know he was gonna get to have this opportunity with DC at the time. They asked him if it was ok if Harcourt was used in that way and if John Economos was used in that way, and he was like, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ And then he would read the scripts and he'd be like, ‘What? Ok, this makes no sense.’
Confusing narrative issues aside, Jennifer Holland told me she had a “great time” working on Black Adam. She especially enjoyed working with Pierce Brosnan, who played Kent Nelson, a.k.a. Doctor Fate. Kent and Aldis Hodge’s Carter Hall, a.k.a. Hawkman, dropped off Teth-Adam at the Task Force X prison. So although it was unusual to have Harcourt running a prison, at least it allowed Holland to share screen time with a former James Bond.
Besides, James Gunn has said Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods are not canon to the new DC Universe continuity, so it’s a moot point now anyway. Black Adam can be streamed with an HBO Max subscription, which is also what you’ll need to watch new episodes of Peacemaker on Thursdays.
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