peacemaker-hbo-max

HBO Max's 'Peacemaker' powered by hair metal / sleaze rock soundtrack (listen to the official playlist)

Peacemaker, the new Suicide Squad spinoff series on HBO Max, debuted last week. Created, written and mostly directed by James Gunn, who made last year’s The Suicide Squad and both Guardians of the Galaxy movies, the series stars John Cena, who reprises his role from The Suicide Squad as a the titular homicidal superhero whose motto is “I cherish peace with all of my heart. I don’t care how many men, women and children I kill to get it.”

One of the first things you notice about the show, apart from it’s over-the-top violence and very irreverent, profane sense of humor, is the soundtrack, which is entirely made up of glammy, sleazy, poppy hair metal, including both OG ’80s bands and more recent varieties which tend to hail from Scandinavia. The show’s amazing opening credits sequence involves the entire cast, not to mention Peacemaker’s pet eagle, Eagaly, in a elaborately choreographed dance number set to “Do You Wanna Taste It,” the 2010 single by Norwegian band and Eurovision Song Contest entrants Wig Wam. You might never hit “Skip Intro” while watching and you can check it out below.

“All the music is glam metal that exists in the world of Peacemaker — hair metal, sleaze rock, whatever you want to call it, or a mixture of those genres,” James Gunn told Rolling Stone‘s Alan Sepinwall. “The Wig Wam song was just, to be completely honest, one of the first things I thought of. I started collecting a list of Peacemaker music long before I started writing the show. And the Wig Wam song just seemed to be the one that had perfect lyrics for our show: ‘Do you wanna taste it? Do you really wanna taste it?’ And so there really was nothing else in consideration besides that song. It came to me, along with the idea of the dance itself written into the teleplays.”

The show also uses songs by Y&T, Tigertails, Faster Pussycat, Foxy Shazam, Firehouse, The Quireboys, Bang Camaro, Nashville Pussy, The Poodles and more. James Gunn has an official Peacemaker Playlist which you can listen to below.

Peacemaker also stars Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Jennifer Holland, Steve Agee, and Chukwudi Iwuji. New episodes premiere on HBO Max every Wednesday.

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