Warning! This text comprises SPOILERS for Peacemaker season 2
Peacemaker creator James Gunn, and star Jennifer Holland, clarify season 2’s shock visitor look from a beloved DCEU character. A TV spinoff of Gunn’s 2021 film The Suicide Squad, a sequel to David Ayer’s 2016 film Suicide Squad, Peacemaker premiered on HBO Max in January 2022, and stars John Cena as jingoistic vigilante superhero Chris Smith/Peacemaker.
Peacemaker season 2, episode 2 noticed Chris Smith enterprise into an alternate universe looking for Emilia Harcourt. As such, Peacemaker season 2, episode 3 supplied a better have a look at this universe, and featured a shock DCEU character return. Now Gunn, and Emilia Harcourt actress Holland, have defined the shock look, and what it might imply shifting ahead.
In pre-release interviews with ScreenRant‘s Liam Crowley, Gunn and Holland mentioned the surprising return of Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag Jr., who final appeared in The Suicide Squad film. The episode reveals that the character is dishonest on June Moon with Emilia, and permits Chris to come across the alternate universe model of Rick.
Gunn and Holland talk about how Rick and Emilia’s relationship was one thing they deliberate from Peacemaker season 1, and Holland mentions how she used the knowledge to assist in her efficiency. She additionally states that it was not deliberate again in The Suicide Squad, and Gunn made the choice when fleshing out Emilia’s character. Try the trade beneath:
ScreenRant: What a shock that was. A minimum of for me. His historical past too, he references June, which is a relationship solely explored again in 2016’s Suicide Squad. How are we taking part in with that?
James Gunn: Properly, I imply, nothing is canon till it’s on this season of Peacemaker, however sure, he clearly has some type of relationship with June Moon, and so we all know that and we all know he’s dishonest on her with Emilia Harcourt, and we all know that he and Harcourt are very shut associates regardless of no matter their bodily relationship is. One thing Jennifer Holland and I deliberate on from the start of season 1, that Harcourt, the rationale she’s so imply to Peacemaker is due to her relationship to Rick Flag. Rick Flag was additionally associates with John Economos, so he had type of the identical response to Peacemaker in the beginning and why they don’t need to be saddled with the man. After which over the course of a pair years, her defenses break down and she or he loves him as an individual, however nonetheless can’t recover from that truth to pursue something extra with him.
ScreenRant: Harcourt’s previous relationship with Rick Flag is an enormous revelation on this season, particularly the Joel Kinnaman iteration of the character. Are you able to discuss to me about how that modified your notion of Harcourt, figuring out that she had that affair with him previous to the occasions of Peacemaker season one? How did that change your notion of her as a personality?
Jennifer Holland: Properly, curiously sufficient, James and I knew this about Harcourt once we shot season 1. We already knew the connection that she had with Rick Flag Jr. So it didn’t change my notion of the character in any respect as a result of he was truly capable of expound on the factor that we already knew that we didn’t talk about overtly in season 1. In season 1, all you see is that she has this unbelievable disdain for this man who she’s been saddled on a workforce with, and we don’t actually know what that’s. I don’t know that the viewers actually asks a query about it a lot, however she hates this man. She principally says to him, ‘I’m going to name you Peacemaker. You may name me Harcourt. How’s that? I’m not considering going any additional with you. I’m on a workforce with you. That doesn’t imply I’ve to love you and let’s simply depart it at that.’ And what’s taking place is what we unpack in season 2, and it’s actually unhappy when you recognize, if you see this episode and what’s behind all of that and what truly occurred for her when the occasions of The Suicide Squad occurred, and it makes Waller just a little bit evil if you concentrate on the truth that she saddled Harcourt on a workforce with this man, I believe, oh, it’s simply all, it’s quite a bit. It’s quite a bit to unpack.
ScreenRant: Yeah, she’s a chessmaster. Actually shortly, do you know on the time of The Suicide Squad that this relationship can be a factor?
Jennifer Holland: No, completely not. After I shot The Suicide Squad, the character was known as Comms Tech One or Comms Tech Two or one thing like that. It wasn’t till someday throughout filming… It was undoubtedly earlier than we completed filming, however someday throughout filming, James determined he was going to provide the character and title simply as an Easter egg for folks to see when the credit rolled. That’s it. He had no plans for Harcourt sooner or later. He didn’t even have any actual plans within the DCEU or no matter it was known as on the time. He thought it was enjoyable for followers to see, ‘Oh, that’s Amelia Harcourt from the comics.’ So it was a shock to me to get to play her once more once we did season 1.
Rick Flag Jr.’s return from the DCEU to Gunn’s new DCU is an attention-grabbing transfer for the present, and makes good use of the alternate universe storyline in season 2. What’s extra, the character, and the revelation surrounding his affair with Emilia, shines a lightweight on Emilia as a personality, and sure impacted Holland’s strategy to the character.
Kinnaman additionally performed Rick Flag Jr. within the 2016 film Suicide Squad.
Figuring out that Gunn and Holland each deliberate for the storyline from Peacemaker season 1 may have given Holland time to mattress that into her efficiency, and explains quite a bit about why Emilia has been the best way she has. It additionally reveals the best way that the character has been fleshed out and developed since showing in a small position in The Suicide Squad.
Our Take On What Rick Flag’s Return Means For Peacemaker’s Future & The DCU
Peacemaker is a enjoyable and action-packed present, and attending to see a extra pathetic facet of Rick was actually enjoyable, and illustrates how the alternate universe can take the present to attention-grabbing locations. Rick Flag Sr. has had a task in Peacemaker season 2 already, so having his son seem was a enjoyable solution to convey one other DC character to Gunn’s new DCU.
It is unclear whether or not Rick Flag Jr. will seem in different episodes of season 2, however, so long as the alternate universe storyline continues, that is definitely potential. It additionally opens up the avenue for extra DCEU characters to make their mark within the DCU, and may also help Gunn to reset the universe, whereas enhancing Peacemaker as a present within the course of.
Peacemaker
7/10
- Launch Date
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January 13, 2022
- Community
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HBO Max, Max
- Administrators
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James Gunn, Brad Anderson, Rosemary Rodriguez