6 Shows and Movies Like Peacemaker to Watch if You Like Peacemaker

Peacemaker kicked off the 2022 TV year in surprisingly good fashion, proving that star John Cena is a legitimate Hollywood superstar and we're merely living in his world. The series, the first spin-off of James Gunn's The Suicide Squad — a second spin-off is in the works, but we don't know who it will center on yet — followed Peacemaker as he took on insectoid alien invaders, his racist father, and anyone who dissed glam rock, and proved that superhero shows can also be hangout comedies. 

But now that Season 1 has come and gone, you might be wondering what to watch next to get your fill of silly superheroes, muscly men, and extremely funny violence until Season 2 arrives. We've put together a list of the best movies and shows that fans of Peacemaker will enjoy. And if they don't, well, they must be a butt baby. 

Peacemaker Watch on HBO Max

Looking for more recommendations for what to watch next? We have a ton of them! And if you're looking for more hand-picked recommendations based on TV shows you love, we have those too, as well as recommendations for Netflix (movies/shows), Amazon Prime Video (movies/shows), Hulu (movies/shows), Disney+ (movies/shows), HBO Max (movies/shows), Apple TV+, and Peacock.

The Suicide Squad

There's a really good chance that if you love Peacemaker, you've seen The Suicide Squad. But if you somehow haven't, it's time to see John Cena's Peacemaker in his big debut which led to the creation of the HBO Max series. The 2021 film from James Gunn is connected to the 2016 film Suicide Squad (no The) pretty much in name only, as it's tonally more like Peacemaker — heads comically exploding, absurd alien creatures — than David Ayer's gloomy bomb that wasn't interested in fun, but several characters, like Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), and Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman), appear in both. You'll also get introduced to John Economos (Steve Agee) and Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) as they play small roles in the film that carry over to Peacemaker. 

Preacher

One of the early TV adaptations of a comic/graphic novel to establish that comic book adaptations could be very TV-MA is AMC's Preacher, a grotesque, gory, bizarre series that makes Peacemaker almost seem tame by comparison. Brought to TV by Seth Rogen — who was probably incredibly high when he decided to do it — Evan Goldberg, and Sam Catlin and based on a cult classic comic series by Garth Ennis, Preacher is a supernatural-horror-adventure series following the sinful preacher Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper) as he searches for God after being imbued with a strange new power. It's much more insane than that, actually, with Jesse's best friend Cassidy (Joe Gilgun), who is an alcoholic vampire, and Jesse's girlfriend Tulip (Ruth Negga) along for the ride as they meet up with all sorts of foes, including Hitler. Yes, that Hitler.

The Boys

If you've seen Peacemaker but haven't seen The Boys, then what are you even doing with your life? As one of the first major superhero shows for people who don't typically like superhero shows, The Boys walked so Peacemaker could run, as they say. Adapted from the comics by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, The Boys follows a group of superheroes — think the Justice League — who are commoditized and commercialized by a corporation that will do anything to protect its heroes and their images. The team is led by Homelander (Antony Starr), a Superman type whose winning smile hides that he's the meanest sonofabitch underneath his costume. "The Boys" refers to the group of regular folks who set out to expose the superheroes for the jerks they are. Like Peacemaker, The Boys loves its raunchy jokes and comical gore, making it just as much a comedy as it is a superhero show. [More shows like The Boys]

Happy!

In terms of testing the limits of decency on television, Peacemaker sets a pretty high bar with its exploding bodies, spurting blood, and Adebayo's sexy texts from her wife. But Syfy's Happy! clears that bar with ease, making it one of the most outlandish TV shows ever made. Christopher Meloni stars as disgraced former police detective Nick Sax, who now moonlights as a hitman, when he's not boozing or snorting drugs, that is. After nearly dying from a heart attack, Nick starts to see his daughter's imaginary friend, a blue winged unicorn named Happy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), and the two go on wild adventures that involve unraveling a conspiracy involving sex cults, aliens, exploding nuns, and more. If you've thought, "Peacemaker is cool and all, but it's not weird enough," then this is the show for you.

Reacher

In just its first two months, 2022 became the year of yoked dudes kicking ass on TV. After Cena's upper body tested the limits of your widescreen TV in Peacemaker, Alan Ritchson's frighteningly fit frame followed in February's Reacher, an adaptation of Lee Child's crime novels. Ritchson and Cena could have a flex-off and there wouldn't be a T-shirt in the world that could hold either of them. As Jack Reacher, Ritchson reclaims the character as Child saw him — a massive former Army major who towers over, well, everyone — rather than the Jack Reacher portrayed by Tom Cruise in the Jack Reacher films. Unlike Peacemaker, Reacher is a smart dude and one hell of an investigator. Like Peacemaker, Reacher just can't seem to keep his shirt on. [More shows like Reacher]

Vacation Friends

Maybe you watched Peacemaker and thought to yourself, "Wait, John Cena can be funny?" Damn right he can! The multi-talented muscle cake may have gotten his start as a wrestler, but he's been honing his comedic chops on TV and film for a while now. One of his most recent movies, Hulu's original film Vacation Friends, is a comedy starring Cena and Search Party's Meredith Hagner as an outgoing couple who befriend another couple (Lil Rel Howery and Yvonne Orji), pretty much ruining their vacation with their outlandish behavior. Are there alien invaders? No. But Cena carries the film with his sense of humor and elastic face.