Posted in: HBO, Max, TV | Tagged: freddie stroma, james gunn, peacemaker

Peacemaker: Adrian/Vigilante Won't Be Getting "Public Diagnosis": Gunn

Peacemaker writer/director James Gunn explains what was behind his decision not to publicly diagnose Freddie Stroma's Adrian/Vigilante.

If there's anything that Prime Video's The Boys and HBO Max's Peacemaker share, it is that serious psychological issues are going on with many of its central characters, and a more than enough share of fans is ready to diagnose their favorite hero accordingly. When confronted about Freddie Stroma's character, Adrian Chase, aka Vigilante, it's the territory that neither the actor nor creator James Gunn is ready to address, speaking to Entertainment Weekly in advance of the season two finale.

Peacemaker Star Freddie Stroma and Creator James Gunn Comment on Vigilante's Mental State

"I've had a lot of people asking me if he's on the spectrum, if he's a sociopath, if he's a psychopath," Stroma said. "I just know James and I have talked about this, I am not qualified to make that label, that decision. So I feel like I'm going to stay out of it and let other people decide, and maybe just keep that conversation going, or I'd say ask James. I'm going to shift it onto him. He's the one who writes the character, so it's his character."

Vigilante was introduced in season one, initially as an admirer of Chris Smith (John Cena), aka Peacemaker, and inspired to become a superhero himself, long before the title character was incarcerated for his reckless behavior and recruited to Task Force X during the events of The Suicide Squad (2021). Season one of Peacemaker directly followed the events of the Gunn film, focusing on Cena's character. Season two expands on the fallout with Frank Grillo's Rick Flag Sr, who seeks revenge on Chris for killing his son, Rick Jr (Joel Kinnaman), in one of the film's climactic moments. The HBO Max series sees Chris recruited under ARGUS with a ragtag group tasked to take on Project Butterfly.

"I'll be very honest with you here — yes, I know what I think of Adrian as being," Gunn said of Stroma's character. "But I'm not sure he's necessarily a great person to represent that stuff because he is, in some ways, morally not admirable." Season two sees Chris, who is lovesick for Emelia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), but still bitter over Amanda Waller's (Viola Davis) breakup of the team. He escapes into alternate dimensions, including one that sees his father (Robert Patrick) and brother, Keith (David Denman), very much alive and fighting crime as a family. After accepting his new destiny, Harcourt, Adrian, Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), and Economos (Steve Agee) try to bring Chris back from his chosen world before discovering the harsh truth: He's replaced his variant in a world resembling DC's Earth-X, where Nazis won World War II, and with the help of Judomaster (Nhut Le), who snuck in after Chris, escape to Earth-2 into the clutches of Flag, who proceeds to arrest Chris.

"Peacemaker has plenty of flaws, but he's also a moral individual who's growing and getting better," Gunn said. "And Adrian, we all love him; he's lovable, we want to hug him, we want him to be our friend, but what he does in life is not great. So I don't necessarily want to give him a public diagnosis and say, 'These people are like this,' because…I don't know if he is a good representation, frankly. And so that's why I refrain from ever saying what I think his diagnosis — and it would be diagnoses — are." Both seasons of Peacemaker, which also stars Sol Rodriguez, Tim Meadows, and Michael Rooker, are available on HBO Max.

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