The first season of HBO’s Peacemaker is ending, but we are still discussing the many aspects of the character being set up, including the reveal, via dialogue, that John Cena’s Peacemaker, a.k.a. Chris Smith, is bisexual—something series creator James Gunn credits as being brought up by Cena himself.
During an interview with Empire magazine (as reported by /Film), Gunn discussed how the development of the characters bisexuality came up in pieces as part of the character coming to terms with who he is despite the fact that his father was a racist, homophobic, piece of shit.
“Peacemaker is an interesting character because he’s so f*-up in so many ways, and then in other ways, he is kind of weirdly forward-thinking,” Gunn explained. “John does improv all the time, and he just turned Christopher Smith into this hyper-sexualized dude that is open to anything sexually. I was surprised by that. But I thought, ‘I guess it makes sense that this guy isn’t one-dimensional.'”
One way this comes out, according to Gunn, is through his love for hair metal and the androgyny of the artists: “I think the hair metal is actually kind of a beautiful thing about Peacemaker. It does have that cocky male swagger that he has, but hair metal is also a way he rebelled against his father. There’re the androgynous aspects of it, and his dad probably called him all sorts of homophobic slurs because he was listening to it. But he owned it. It was his. Something that was outside the realm of his father. He loves that music and he’s able to just escape into it and rock out and be okay. I think he’s grateful to the music for that.”
As someone who is queer, I understand that escapism via music, and I think making that an aspect of Chris’s character does add layers to him. On a certain level, I do think it’s a little heteronormative in a lot of the assumptions, especially since we never get to truly see Chris explore that side of himself with another man.
“We see in the show that he doesn’t have any issues with sexuality,” Gunn says, but it would be nice in season two to have his sexually be explored in a more nuanced way—well, nuanced for Peacemaker, especially since this show is more likely to do that in an engaging way than, say, Loki has. So far, they are both lip-service, but at least we know, with Chris, that comes from the fact that he actively grew up around homophobia. I think there is something to be said about allowing audiences to see just how deeply those things can fuck you up, even as a grown adult.
With Loki, it’s just Disney. Warner Bros. and DC has been on the winning side of this battle for a while, and even with Marvel’s Eternals breaking that boundary a little bit more, there is a lot of work to be done.
Until then, throw your dog the invisible bone.
(via IGN, image: Warner Bros.)
