A trailer and release date have been shared for John Cena’s The Suicide Squad spin-off Peacemaker. The new series from James Gunn was officially announced back in July, the day before The Suicide Squad hit cinemas. Cena plays the character of Peacemaker in the recent DC Extended Universe movie and will reprise that role in a series for HBO Max, which has been confirmed for release on January 13, 2022. At Saturday’s DC FanDome event, the release date was revealed alongside a first trailer, which sees Cena returning from near-death by Amanda Waller (played by Viola Davis) “just to save the world, that’s all.” Steve Agee and Jennifer Holland are also reprising their respective roles from the film as John and Emilia, aides to Suicide Squad mastermind Amanda Waller who are tasked to help Peacemaker on his latest mission. Joining them are Daniella Brooks as Leota, a new recruit to the “Peacemaker” crew; Freddie Stroma as Adrian Chase, aka Vigilante, who shares Peacemaker’s enthusiasm for killing bad guys in a tight costume; and Chukwudi Iwuji, as Clemson Murn, the head of the Peacemaker team. Robert Patrick also plays Peacemaker’s less-than-loving father. In an interview with Collider upon the show’s announcement, Gunn broke down the show’s ensemble cast. “So there’s the six main characters of Peacemaker, Leota Adebayo, who’s Danielle Brooks, Emilia Harcourt, who’s Jennifer Holland, Vigilante, who’s Freddie Stroma, Clemson Murn, who is Chukwudi Iwuji, and John Economos, who is Steve Agee,” the director confirmed. “It’s really an ensemble about those six characters.” Gunn also said that the eight-part series will focus on one big storyline, although each character will have their own journey to go on. The director found the change of pace from feature films refreshing. Executive producer Matt Miller called “Peacemaker” a “workplace comedy” during the panel. In that spirit, the trailer is light on plot and heavy on comedy, featuring Peacemaker getting down – and his butt kicked – in his aforementioned underwear, talking about his belief in “butt babies” and getting a hug from a bald eagle. Cena also recently spoke about how his “grossly inappropriate” outtakes from The Suicide Squad inspired the forthcoming Peacemaker series. Speaking to NME, Cena said: “In pushing the boundaries of Peacemaker, I started to lean into a lot of the nuances that I enjoy. None of it made the movie – not one bit – and everyone on the cast was very patient during that exploration. A lot of it was grossly inappropriate – certainly not acceptable – but you do get to a place where you define a character.”