This vulnerable version of Chris is miles away from the brutish antagonist introduced in James Gunn’s 2021 film, The Suicide Squad. Even among a group of frenzied villains, Peacemaker’s affinity for violence, crude humor, and betraying his teammates made him quite the foe. Cena, with his prolific wrestling career, turned out to be the right fit for a character defined by his machismo in the movie. While he wasn’t given meaty material compared to co-stars like Idris Elba, David Dastmalchian, and Daniela Melchior, he brought an earnestness to make the guy who stabbed Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) just likable enough. And thankfully, writer-director James Gunn planted the seeds of Peacemaker’s rich backstory, as he told Variety in an interview that year. DC’s now-co-CEO continues to flesh this out in HBO Max’s spirited spin-off series.
The first season, which was released in 2022, unraveled Chris’ turbulent upbringing under his toxic, white-supremacist dad, Auggie (Robert Patrick), and the lingering trauma of accidentally killing his younger brother as a child after being egged on by their pops. The show succeeded at blending this dark superhero fare with plenty of unabashed, loud comedy—a comfort zone for Cena in past efforts like Trainwreck, Playing With Fire, and the slept-on Blockers. In the gap between Peacemaker seasons, Cena sharpened those skills through a delightfully unhinged performance in 2024’s Ricky Stanicky, and he even popped up in an episode of The Bear as a fast-talking Fak. But in its ongoing sophomore run,which wraps up October 9, Peacemaker is less about the punchlines—although those very much exist—and more about Chris’ tendency to self-sabotage as a way to pay for past sins. The tonal shift allows Gunn to dig deeper into Chris’ misery, and Cena sinks his teeth in to show off his dramatic chops in a way he hasn’t gotten to do before. Clearly, this partnership with Gunn has worked out in his favor. (The director achieved a similar result with another wrestler-turned-actor, Dave Bautista, in Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy movies.) In Peacemaker season two, Chris seeks an escape from his nightmarish reality, where redemption seems impossible for him. So he decides to live in an alternate universe where Keith Smith (David Denman) and Auggie are alive at the cost of ignoring a brutal truth: The Nazis rule this realm. Chris conveniently misses a giant Hitler mural and the swastika on the American flag because he’s overjoyed at spending time with his family and connecting with this dimension’s Emilia.
It’s only when the 11th Street Kids—the OG Harcourt, Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), and John Economos (Steve Agee)—come to rescue him that he realizes the truth. In episode seven, “Like A Keith In The Night,” the group attempts to go back to their world when the Smiths confront Chris for killing his doppelganger. And when a revenge-fueled Keith attacks, the crew (including Eagly, of course) wastes no time thrashing him in a gutting confrontation that forces Chris to revisit the memory of his brother dying in his arms. Cue a guttural scream from Chris (“Get off him. What the fuck is wrong with all of us?”), followed by the tearful realization that he is the bad news in every world. As Peacemaker reaches his breaking point, Cena arrives at a new high, with a career-best performance that lets him check off that “make audiences cry” entry on his bucket list.
