Bollywood: James Gunn Confirms Eastbound & Down Director for Peacemaker

James Gunn confirms an Eastbound & Down director for his Peacemaker show. John Cena plays the DC antihero Peacemaker in Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and will reprise the character in an upcoming HBO Max streaming show also created by Gunn.

A vigilante bent on bringing peace to humanity at any cost, Peacemaker first appeared in the pages of DC Comics in 1988 after being acquired from the defunct Charlton Comics company. The character would later make an appearance in Watchmen before joining the Suicide Squad. Cena’s version of the character for The Suicide Squad is described as a sort of anti-Captain America, and Cena himself has called the character “a loud, obnoxious, bro-ey douchebag.” Indeed, Peacemaker the streaming show will reportedly explore how the character came to be a douchebag and in Cena’s own words will explain “why he sucks.”

Gunn himself wrote eight episodes of the upcoming streaming show about the superhero who sucks and will direct five of them. On Twitter, Gunn just confirmed the identity of one more Peacemaker director, telling fans that Jody Hill took the reins for at least one episode. Gunn also told a fun anecdote about Hill’s time on the set, relating how the director mistakenly called the show’s main character “Peacemaster” on more than one occasion (Hill is perhaps a big fan of the 1980s cult film The Beastmaster). The error amused everyone enough that patches were made in commemoration. See Gunn’s tweet in the space below:

"Peacemaster" director Hill is a veteran of TV with many writing and producing credits. As a director he helmed 16 episodes of Eastbound & Down, the HBO series starring Danny McBride as a baseball pitcher with an ego almost as powerful as his fastball. Hill later reunited with McBride to direct episodes of both Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones. He also directed the 2009 Seth Rogen movie Observe and Report as well as the 2018 Josh Brolin film The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter.

Thinking about the main character of Eastbound & Down, an egomaniac baseball player with all sorts of personal issues, it’s easy to see why Gunn would tap Hill to direct some of Peacemaker. It’s clear Cena’s character is being explored as an example of toxic masculinity, and it’s hard to think of a more toxic male character in recent television history than Eastbound & Down's Kenny Powers. The older HBO show was of course a riotous comedy about an egomaniac, and Peacemaker figures to boast a similar outrageous tone. No premiere date has yet been announced but Peacemaker is expected to arrive in January 2022.

Source: James Gunn/Twitter

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July 12, 2021 at 12:09AM

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