Published 16:34 IST, February 2nd 2021
'Peacemaker': 'The Suicide Squad' spinoff casts Elizabeth Faith Ludlow and Rizwan Manji
Elizabeth Faith Ludlow and Rizwan Manji will play the respective recurring characters of Keeya and Jamil on James Gunn’s upcoming HBO Max Peacemaker series.
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Elizabeth Faith Ludlow and Rizwan Manji have been cast to play the respective recurring roles of Keeya and Jamil on James Gunn’s upcoming HBO Max series Peacemaker, which sees John Cena take on the titular role. Their character descriptions are being kept under wraps in the Suicide Squad spinoff series, which focuses on John Cena’s titular mercenary: a guy who believes in peace at any cost — no matter how many people he has to kill to get it. Director James Gunn, who is writing all eight episodes of the series, shared the news on his Twitter handle.
Welcome @ElizabethLudlow & @Riz_Manji! I've been working with these 2 this week & they've been killing it. FUN FACT: Elizabeth was in GOTG Vol 2 but she was an alien so I didn't recognize her when she auditioned - I didn't know we had worked together until I cast her a 2nd time! https://t.co/TVMRf2ut8V pic.twitter.com/rseKDEnDp0
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) February 1, 2021
More about Peacemaker on HBO Max
Last month, James Gunn announced the start of production on Peacemaker, a new series that explores the backstory behind John Cena’s character in The Suicide Squad (2021). But even though cameras are already rolling, new casting announcements are still trickling out. According to Deadline, Elizabeth Faith Ludlow and Rizwan Manji are the latest additions to Gunn’s series. Unfortunately, there are no more details about their characters except their names. James Gunn, who has written and directed the upcoming Suicide Squad film, has written all eight episodes of the debut season, as well as directing several others including the pilot episode.
Some fans might recognize Ludlow from playing Arat (a member of Negan’s Saviors) on The Walking Dead. She also appeared in Godzilla: King of the Monsters and is part of the main cast for Netflix’s Another Life. Ludlow previously worked with Gunn on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, where she had a brief role as an Easik woman. But in a new Instagram post confirming her casting, Gunn claimed that he didn’t even recognize her when she auditioned for Peacemaker.
Rizwan Manji recently starred in NBC’s Perfect Harmony opposite Bradley Whitford. Rizwan had a recurring role on The Magicians, as well as Mr Robot alongside Rami Malek. He also appeared on Pop TV’s Schitt’s Creek (2015-2020). He has appeared as a series regular on NBC’s Outsourced and has been a part of Goliath, Another Period, Workaholics, The League and Minority Report.
James Gunn and Peter Saffran (The Conjuring, Shazam!) will serve as executive producers of the series, with John Cena as co-EP. HBO Max still hasn’t set a release date for Peacemaker but it is tentatively set to release mid-2021. Regardless, fans will be able to see John Cena in action when The Suicide Squad hits the streaming service simultaneously with theatres on August 6 this year.
16:34 IST, February 2nd 2021