Things We Saw Today: James Gunn Breaks Down Peacemaker’s Relationship to Real-World Issues

Peacemaker changed the game in how many of us view John Cena’s take on the character, myself included. As someone who did not want to watch a show about Peacemaker as a character, I am proud to say that I was oh so very wrong and that creator James Gunn mastered the art of making this character’s journey something that we wanted to see week after week. And sometimes, that means having Chris Smith deal with issues going on around him that compare to what is happening in our own reality.

Talking to Vulture, James Gunn broke down how Chris Smith’s journey relates to current events and how real life issues in comparison to what happened in The Suicide Squad: “Well, there’s an argument to be made for that. Definitely in Suicide Squad, that’s a prominent thing we get into, our relationship with a government that’s using us. But Peacemaker’s a little different because everything involving the government is so behind-the-scenes. We hear about the government manipulations, but we don’t get into the details too fully. Peacemaker is about what’s going on in America, but it’s more about what’s going on within America’s people than within the government itself.”

In The Suicide Squad, Chris Smith was a pawn for the government in a way, but as we can see in Peacemaker, he’s willing to try to make his own decisions about the butterflies and the government’s involvement in it all. He wants to unpack what’s happening for himself instead of letting someone tell him what to believe, and that’s currently a very big topic of conversation for Americans especially. So, that trust that Chris has in his own beliefs and unpacking things for himself is interesting, and it will prove for a difficult journey in season 2 of the hit HBO show, as well.

(image: HBO)

Here are some other things we saw out there today:

• Evangeline Lilly is still up to her nonsense. (via NME)
• Britney Spears is getting a book deal. (via The Hollywood Reporter)
• Brie Larson explains a bit about her Captain Marvel sequel! (via Collider)
• The #OscarsFanFavorite is blowing up spectacularly. (via Pajiba)
• The Tinder Swindler is in talks to become a movie! (via Variety)

Anything we missed out there today, Mary Suevians? Let us know what you saw in the comments below!