Peacemaker Just Casually Bested Every DCEU Movie In One Major Way
Filmmaker James Gunn made a major splash in the world of superhero movies in 2014 with the MCU film "Guardians of the Galaxy." Despite having to fight to get his casting choices, the writer-director managed to get his vision on screen, and the success of the film led to a sequel in 2017 and a third entry hopefully starting production soon.
In the wake of his success in the MCU, fans of Gunn were very excited to hear that his filmmaking talents wouldn't be relegated to Marvel He was also tapped by Warner Bros. to direct the DCEU feature "The Suicide Squad," which hit theaters in August 2021. The movie's release, however, was not the end of his time in the DCEU. Around the time of the release of "The Suicide Squad," we learned he was also working on a spin-off series focused on the character of Peacemaker, with wrestler-turned-actor John Cena set to reprise the role for the TV series.
"Peacemaker" the show made its debut on HBO Max in mid-January. At the time of writing, the cheeky antihero series has aired four episodes and, in the time, introduced us to yet another ragtag team, an intriguing mystery involving body-snatching beings known as "Butterflies," and an adorable pet bald eagle named Eagly (duh). As "Peacemaker" has charmed audiences, there is another notable area in which it has already soared ahead of every other DCEU property released to date.
Peacemaker has the highest critic rating in the DCEU
"Peacemaker" currently holds the highest critic rating of any DCEU property, be it movies or television on Rotten Tomatoes. At the time of writing, the HBO Max series comes in at a 94% Tomatometer score, which represents the general critical reactions. If we look at the Rotten Tomatoes page where all of the DCEU titles to date are listed, the "Peacemaker" rating puts it ahead of "The Suicide Squad," which sits at 90%. Other top-rated titles include 2017's "Wonder Woman," which held the position of best-ranked DCEU property at 93% until it was dethroned, and 2019's "Shazam!," the only other DCEU film also in the same percentile, matching "The Suicide Squad" with a 90% rating.
"Peacemaker" has landed just as strongly with audiences as well, currently sitting at an audience score of 85%. It has also beat out "The Suicide Squad," which currently has an audience score of 82%, though "Peacemaker" does not currently hold the top spot in this category. That honor belongs to "Zack Snyder's Justice League," which holds an audience score of 94%.
Among DC live-action TV shows, "Peacemaker" is also impressively holding its own. Its critic rating ties it for third place with the CW series "Stargirl" (per Forbes). The HBO Max series "Doom Patrol" currently holds the top spot in this category with a 97% critic rating, while the 2019 HBO miniseries "Watchmen" is in second place with 96%.
Gunn, who serves as the series creator in addition to writer and a director of a majority of episodes, seemed to bear no ill will towards the TV show beating out his movie. On Saturday, he tweeted a note of thanks to both critics and audiences for their support of the show.