James Gunn's 'Peacemaker' Adds Alison Araya, Lenny Jacobson To Cast In Recurring Roles

Peacemaker has added two more actors to its growing ensemble. Alison Araya and Lenny Jacobson are the latest to join the Peacemaker cast as new characters in the HBO Max spin-off series of writer/director James Gunn's upcoming movie The Suicide Squad.Variety broke the news that Alison Araya and Lenny Jacobson have been tapped for recurring roles in the upcoming Peacemaker series at HBO Max. Araya and Jacobson will play the married couple Amber and Evan, respectively.

Araya is an Australian-Latina actress who is best known for appearing on Riverdale, Arrow, and Julie and the Phantoms. Meanwhile, Jacobson previously starred in Narcos: Mexico at Netflix and is currently appearing on the alt-history space drama For All Mankind at Apple. He's also appeared on TV shows like Nurse Jackie and films like Bumblebee and Like Father.

Amber and Evan don't appear to be established characters from the DC Comics canon, so we can probably assume that these are characters invented by Gunn. The description is so vague that it's hard to tell how major of a role Araya and Jacobson have, or whether Amber and Evan will be more than mere background characters, but there you have it.

Araya and Jacobson join the series led by John Cena, who reprises his role as Peacemaker, the "superhero/supervillain/and world's biggest douchebag" who will appear in Gunn's The Suicide Squad when it hits theaters and HBO Max this August.

HBO Max first announced the Peacemaker series in September, as part of the WarnerMedia streaming platform's strategy to spin off its DC properties into TV shows that will bring more eyes, and more subscribers, to its service. But Gunn was already ready with a lockdown-written script, and the series quickly came together, with Cena boarding the project alongside Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Jennifer Holland (Brightburn), Chris Conrad (Patriot), Steve Agee (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Chukwudi Iwuji (When They See Us). The series began production in January this year and has been steadily shooting since, and we can likely expect more cast members to join as production continues.

Gunn's series will show how Peacemaker became "a man who believes in peace at any cost — no matter how many people he has to kill to get it." Gunn and The Suicide Squad producer Peter Safran will serve as executive producers of the series, with Cena as co-executive producer.

The Suicide Squad will hit theaters and HBO Max on August 6, 2021, and Peacemaker is currently slated to arrive in January 2022.