Key Takeaways

• Role Origin: James Gunn initially envisioned Dave Bautista for the role of Peacemaker.
• Friendship: Gunn has a long-standing friendship with John Cena, which influenced his casting choice.
• Current Streaming: The second season of Peacemaker is currently available on HBO Max.
• Critical Acclaim: The series has received positive reviews for its quality and Cena’s performance.

John Cena is Peacemaker. He’s made that role his own like few could. However, James Gunn originally had another actor in mind for the role of Peacemaker: his friend Dave Bautista. On the Howard Stern Show, Gunn revealed that he wrote Peacemaker with the Guardians of the Galaxy star in mind.

“It was Dave Bautista. He’s a good friend of mine,” Gunn said. “Obviously, he plays Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy, and I wrote the character of Peacemaker for him, and we offered him the role, but he was offered two movies, and we weren’t paying him a lot, and so he had to go where the money was.“

Gunn added that he had been a fan of John Cena since Trainwreck, the 2015 comedy starring Amy Schumer and Bill Hader. “I thought he was so funny in that movie,” he said. “I met with him, we talked, we became instant friends, and I’ve worked with him more than any actor because I’ve done two seasons of Peacemaker, The Suicide Squad, and we’re going to be doing more together. He’s a fantastic guy, a fantastic actor.“

Although I could see Bautista as Peacemaker, Cena was clearly the perfect man for the job. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role. What do you think?

The first three episodes of the second season of Peacemaker are currently streaming on HBO Max. Our own Alex Maidy is a big fan of the new season. “Peacemaker was great when it debuted and is even better the second time around,” he wrote. “James Gunn’s DCU is off to a strong start, and the man himself should take pride in having created three distinct projects to kick off his cinematic universe, which are all vastly different and yet impressively high quality. Peacemaker works because John Cena is the perfect blend of muscle and emotional presence, making the ensemble more cohesive than before. I love everything about this series, and I look forward to seeing how this season wraps up, inevitably leading into a third season and other aspects of the DCU.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.