Viola Davis In Talks To Star In Amanda Waller-Focused Peacemaker Spin-Off For HBO Max

James Gunn may have written "The Suicide Squad" spin-off "Peacemaker" while trapped inside during quarantine, but the HBO Max series proved to be one of his career bests. The show was an immediate hit, and fans have been clamoring for more DC Comics projects from Gunn ever since. While he's currently finishing up post-production at Marvel for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," Gunn has spent the past few months teasing two possible new DC projects, and thanks to an announcement over at Variety, there's a good chance we can figure out what one of those projects will be. The Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Award-winning Viola Davis is reportedly returning to her role as Amanda Waller in the DCEU, and is set to star in her own spinoff series at HBO Max. While plot details are understandably not yet available, Variety said their sources believe the show will serve as a follow-up to her appearance at the end of "Peacemaker" season 1.

The first season of "Peacemaker" concluded with Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) going public with the shocking announcement that her mother, Amanda Waller, was part of Task Force X and the Suicide Squad. Blowing Waller's cover is a huge turn of events, but Adebayo did so in order to clear Peacemaker's name and put a target on the back of Amanda "The Wall" Waller, who is treated as one of the biggest non-"super" antagonists in the DC Comics universe. Davis is said to be executive producing the spin-off in addition to starring, with Christal Henry ("Watchmen," "The First") writing and executive producing. Gunn would return to executive produce alongside Peter Safran.

This would mark the second spin-off from James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad," not to mention the inevitable second season of "Peacemaker." While the series has canonical crossover with the DCEU of Joss Whedon, Zack Snyder, and James Wan, Gunn's corner of the DCEU feels like its own animal. With Gunn executive producing, it seems like the Amanda Waller series will fit in a similar vein as his DC projects. This also predictably means we'll be getting more of Brooks' Adebayo, the stand-out secondary protagonist of "Peacemaker."

DC was rumored to have been working on a "Secret Six" series back in 2018, and given Amanda Waller's history as codename Mockingbird, it sure would be fun if this series was a set-up for an eventual "Secret Six" series/movie, or if it was just straight up a "Secret Six" series from the jump. Gunn's ability to allow audiences to empathize with supervillains has allowed for some of the most interesting storytelling in the entire DCEU, and an Amanda Waller series fits right in line with this trend. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and get another look at Starro the Conquerer before Waller tasked the Suicide Squad with destroying anything proving the government's connection to the gigantic starfish.