At the moment, James Gunn is shooting Peacemaker with John Cena. Tales from the set indicate a grand time with Cena’s ridiculous commitment to the character becoming an ongoing joke. Unfortunately, the production did face a bit of difficulty recently when they had to recast a character. Earlier this week, Deadline reported that Freddie Stroma has replaced Chris Conrad as Vigilante.
Last September, we got some pretty insane news that Gunn was going to write and direct an HBO Max series focused on Cena’s Peacemaker. A couple of months later, Warner Bros. announced that Chris Conrad had been cast as Vigilante, the Adrian Chase version.
For those who don’t know, Vigilante shares a backstory with Marvel’s Punisher. Tragically, mobsters murdered Chase’s wife and kids. At the time, Chase was a New York District Attorney, but he decided to take justice into his own hands and became Vigilante. However, similar to Batman, he wasn’t willing to take a life. Also, he had healing abilities.
A new Vigilante in town
Unfortunately, earlier this week, we learned that Conrad has stepped away from the role due to creative differences. Now, Freddie Stroma from Netflix’s The Crew, has signed on to replace Conrad as Vigilante. It’s an interesting change in direction considering their age differences. I mean, Stroma is 16 years Conrad’s junior. Perhaps the character changed in production and they decided to lean towards a younger version? As DC fans know, rewrites are always a thing.
Personally, my only exposure to Stroma was his turn as the lecherous (yet hilarious) Cormac McLaggen in the Harry Potter movies. The guy certainly has the chops for comedy, so let’s hope that he can pull off being a superhero of the same caliber as Cena.
Peacemaker will air on HBO Max in 2022. The Suicide Squad will hit theatres and HBO Max on August 6, 2021.
Source – Deadline