An actor who played a significant role in James Gunn's Suicide Squad movie just appeared in Peacemaker Season 2, indicating that the actor may not portray his Suicide Squad character in the DCU. A few actors who technically appeared in the DCEU canon were brought over into the new DCU. Most notably, John Cena reprised his role as Peacemaker, but a few other names who showed up in The Suicide Squad also made the jump to the DCU, like Jennifer Holland (Emilia Harcourt) and Steve Agee (John Economos). However, another central Suicide Squad character was just revealed to be canon, and it is not someone anyone expected.
Peacemaker Season 2 has officially featured Michael Rooker as an antagonist named Red St. Wild in three of the new installment's episodes, meaning that Peacemaker creator and writer James Gunn (who is also the head of DC Studios and the new DCU) officially recast a key actor from The Suicide Squad to play a character in Peacemaker.
Specifically, Rooker portrayed Red St. Wild in Episodes 3-5 of Season 2. His main task in Season 2 was to hunt down and kill Eagly, as he was best known for being the best eagle poacher in the world.
It is no surprise that Rooker appeared in Peacemaker, as he has had a role in every James Gunn feature film and in most of his special projects and TV shows as well. However, he already appeared in a live-action Gunn DC project, portraying Savant in The Suicide Squad.
Rooker wasn't featured too much in The Suicide Squad, as the nanite chip that was inserted into his head was detonated by Amanda Waller shortly after the team reached Corto Maltese early on in the film. However, he was still prominently shown on-screen and established as Savant, so his appearance in Peacemaker Season 2 marked the actor being recast for a new role in Gunn's DCU.
As mentioned, Rooker has appeared in a lot of James Gunn projects. However, it is extremely notable that Peacemaker Season 2 is actually his third appearance in a DCU project, meaning that he has been officially cast in every DCU entry so far.
For instance, he also showed up in one episode of Creature Commandos as Sam. Since that series was animated, though, Sam's character design did not resemble Rooker, so there was no worry that it could be confusing for him to return as a different character.
Rooker also took on the role of Superman Robot #1 in Gunn's Superman film. Once again, only Rooker's voice was used, so it wasn't like his face or likeness was featured in any way, but he was still credited as a cast member for the project.
Outside of the DC umbrella, Rooker has stayed by Gunn's side. Before making the jump to the blue brand, Gunn was tasked with directing three Guardians of the Galaxy flicks for Marvel Studios. Rooker ended up appearing in all three of those movies as a character named Yondu, who became a fan-favorite.
The Hollywood star has appeared in non-superhero projects directed by Gunn as well. For example, he served as the main antagonist of a horror film titled Slither. His character's name was Grant Grant, and he was infested by a parasite.
Back to the superhero genre, Gunn released a superhero dark comedy in 2010 titled Super. Rooker also appeared in that movie as a character named Abe, who is a henchman of a drug dealer.
New episodes of Peacemaker Season 2 are released every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO Max. The series also stars John Cena as Peacemaker, Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, and Freddie Stroma as Adrian Chase.
Will Michael Rooker Return to the DCU?
Since James Gunn will be at the head of the DCU's creative process, it is hard to imagine Michael Rooker not showing up anymore in the franchise. However, Red St. Wild died in Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 5, so many assume there is no way he can come back. Well, that is not the case.
The character of Red St. Wild was originally not supposed to be played by Rooker. On an episode of DC Studios Showcase: The Official Podcast, Gunn revealed that someone else had been cast in the role first, but that they had to leave. So, Gunn "called up [his] friend Michael Rooker," who was able to step into the role as a favor to Gunn:
"Well, we recast the character of Red St. Wild. He was another actor, he was a very talented actor, great guy. It just didn’t work out for various reasons. And so after we had shot most of his scenes, I called up my friend Michael Rooker. I said, 'I want you to come in and maybe, you know, do this role for us.' He said, 'How much money?' I said, 'You’ll actually have to pay us.' And he agreed to come in."
Even though Rooker appeared in Peacemaker Season 2, that does not mean that he will not be able to come back and portray another character in the franchise. In a separate episode of the official DC podcast, Rooker came on as a guest. He and Gunn confirmed that they struck a deal with one another that would allow Rooker to play Red St. Wild, but still return to the franchise to play another character in the future:
"So we’ll make you like as much, like, ridiculous as we can, and if you need to come in and play another role, at some point, we’ll still do that."
So, fans will most likely be seeing Rooker again in the DCU at some point. It is unclear what kind of character he will play, but his track record suggests that he will be some sort of antagonist.
