John Cena may be about to land his first superhero role

If you’re a comic book and pro wrestling nerd like yours truly, prepare for a major crossing of the streams. Well, actually, if you’re as big a nerd as I am, you probably read about this hours ago, but you’re probably still down to discuss it again.

According to Variety, John Cena is in talks to join Warner Bros.’ Suicide Squad 2. The sequel to the critically-reviled 2016 hit movie will be substantially re-tooled by Guardians of the Galaxy writer/director James Gunn, and Cena will potentially be playing a new character alongside Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Idris Elba in a still unrevealed role (this fan of the 1980 John Ostrander/Luke McConnell Squad has his fingers crossed for Bronze Tiger). Jai Courtney will also be back as Captain Boomerang, but Will Smith’s Deadshot is not in Gunn’s sequel.

The other weird pro wrestling connection to this story is that another of Gunn’s Guardians cast was originally set for the job Cena may be taking. Per Variety’s Justin Kroll, Dave Bautista was originally planning to take the part, but he had to back out due to a scheduling conflict.

And who will be the first superhero John Cena portrays on-screen (other than John Cena, the 16 time WWE World champion he plays on Raw and SmackDown, that is)? Kroll believes it will be Peacemaker, an old Charlton Comics character DC integrated into their universe alongside characters like Blue Beetle and Captain Atom. The basic gimmick is that he loves peace so much he’s willing to wage war to attain it, which kind of fits Cena since he played a babyface who often acted like a heel for so many years.

In addition to not being a very well known character, there have been a few different versions of Peacemaker, so Gunn and Cena will likely have plenty of latitude to make it their own.

I just hope he wears this helmet, cause it’s awesome.

Wikipedia

And it will save us from being distracted by his haircut.