{"id":1979907,"date":"2025-08-26T05:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T05:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1979907"},"modified":"2025-08-26T05:00:44","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T05:00:44","slug":"peacemaker-proves-john-cena-is-our-best-wrestler-turned-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/peacemaker-proves-john-cena-is-our-best-wrestler-turned-actor\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Peacemaker\u2019 Proves John Cena Is Our Best Wrestler-Turned-Actor"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Wrestlers have dominated the big screen over the last decade, particularly in superhero films where their physicality can be put to use. Dave Bautista<\/a> starred in the Guardians of the Galaxy<\/i> films<\/a>, and Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson<\/a> led Black Adam<\/i><\/a>. As their film careers have exploded, there\u2019s one wrestler who dominates the small screen instead.<\/p>\n

John Cena<\/a> first starred as D-list DC antihero Peacemaker (A.K.A. Christopher Smith) in James Gunn<\/a>\u2019s The Suicide Squad<\/i><\/a> in 2021. On paper, Chris is one of The Suicide Squad<\/i>\u2019s most arrogant characters. But while Cena is relegated to comedic relief for the majority of the film, he eventually comes out swinging as a dramatic force when Chris kills Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), a member of his team who was attempting to expose a government coverup.<\/p>\n

Rick\u2019s murder at Chris\u2019 hands becomes one of the emotional crutches of the film\u2019s final act, and carries over into a major theme in Peacemaker<\/i>, allowing Cena to inhabit a role that lets him shed his wrestler persona.<\/p>\n

In this spin-off series<\/a>, the story quickly unfolds into a startling examination of a man haunted by his past and what the future may hold for him. The Chris we see here is a broken man scarred by his brother\u2019s death\u2014which we find out was unintentionally orchestrated by Chris\u2019 white supremacist father, Auggie (Robert Patrick)\u2014and unable to come to terms with the murder of his former teammate.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/span><\/div>\n

John Cena. \/ Jessica Miglio\/HBO Max<\/p>\n

Peacemaker<\/i> quickly chips away at any previous notion of Cena\u2019s middling acting potential, forcing the actor to reveal his true talents like a never-ending Jack-in-the-box.<\/p>\n

This continues with Season 2, which premiered last week on the heels of a piece<\/a> from The Hollywood Reporter<\/i> that ranked 10 wrestlers-turned-actors from best to worst. Cena places third, the lowest amongst his modern peers Bautista and Johnson.<\/p>\n

While this article points out box-office draw as a major factor in this ranking, Cena hasn\u2019t led many films in the way his peers have had the chance to. What Cena has done, however, is display one of the most impressive acting career trajectories of the last decade, proving himself in this new season of Peacemake<\/i>r to be someone who\u2019s not only interested in honing their craft, but someone who relishes in growing as a performer.<\/p>\n

Still reeling from killing his abusive father last season, Chris is now a shell of himself. He auditions for a role in the Justice Gang but is chased out by homophobic jibes and laughter, and struggles to find a purpose in a world that doesn\u2019t truly view him as a hero.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/span><\/div>\n

John Cena and Danielle Brooks. \/ Jessica Miglio\/HBO Max<\/p>\n

Attempting to cope with his internal shame, Chris quickly goes home before snorting a mountain of cocaine. We then watch as he dissociates in his drug-addled breakdown, coming in-and-out of consciousness while an orgy carries on in his house. Behind the vapidness of his drug-induced state, Cena\u2019s physicality carries a great weight to it, as if Chris\u2019s body is literally being warped by his grief.<\/p>\n

As he wanders into his father\u2019s quantum unfolding storage area, he happens to wander into a reality where his father is still alive, and one where his brother Keith (David Denman) was never killed. When he first encounters this older version of his brother, Chris stands immobile, gazing at Keith\u2019s face with confusion, but also hope. His eyes beam with an openness we seldom see Chris adopt as a man whose trauma has hardened him beyond repair. He looks at his brother as if he can\u2019t believe he truly exists, desperate to hold onto this moment in case it slips through his hands.<\/p>\n

After a lifetime of self-flagellation and abuse from his own father, this new world just might be able to give Chris everything he\u2019s ever wanted. Oblivious to the fact that this Chris is not the same Chris who he grew up with, Keith takes Chris\u2019 silence in stride, before saying goodnight.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/span><\/div>\n

John Cena. \/ HBO Max<\/p>\n

For the first time in minutes, Chris speaks, grabbing desperately onto his brother\u2019s arm. \u201cI love you,\u201d he confesses, and after the sentiment is returned and Keith leaves the room, it\u2019s as if a dam breaks. Chris begins to sob, and Cena portrays this with wet, startling gasps, some that he tries to stifle with a hand over his face. The camera lingers on this expression for a few moments, before the camera pans out and Cena\u2019s body bowls over.<\/p>\n

With this shattering sequence, it\u2019s clear that while James Gunn may write fantastic material, it\u2019s Cena who truly elevates this story. Peacemaker <\/i>is a series that often bogs down its emotional moments with jokes, but with this new season, Gunn continues to give Cena room to progress as an actor, and deliver what may be the best performance in a superhero television show.<\/p>\n

As the emotional core of this series, Cena has pushed himself in a way that most actors aren\u2019t willing to, letting his nose run as he cries and reveling in the messiness of the character he\u2019s inhabiting. In this starring TV role, Cena has proved himself not only as the best wrestler-turned-actor of our times, but one of the best actors to grace our TV screens.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wrestlers have dominated the big screen over the last decade, particularly in superhero films where their physicality can be put to use. Dave Bautista starred in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, and Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson led Black Adam. As their film careers have exploded, there\u2019s one wrestler who dominates the small screen instead. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1979908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[22867,341185,307230,41332,316700,326584],"class_list":["post-1979907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-chris","tag-christopher-smith","tag-dave-bautista","tag-james-gunn","tag-john-cena","tag-peacemaker"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u2018Peacemaker-Proves-John-Cena-Is-Our-Best-Wrestler-Turned-Actor.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1979907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1979907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1979908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1979907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1979907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1979907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}