Judomaster Is Hiding Throughout The Peacemaker Intro And You Probably Didn't Notice Him
If you haven't heard, John Cena's "Peacemaker" is the toast of the town, as much for his dance skills as for his anti-heroics, currently playing out in new episodes every Thursday on HBO Max. "Peacemaker" had already wrapped filming its first season by the time "Hawkeye" dropped on Disney+ last year, but its opening credits — which you can see below — almost seem like a response to the Steve Rogers-themed Broadway musical in that series. It's as if showrunner James Gunn, who already has one foot in both shared universes with "The Suicide Squad" and "Guardians of the Galaxy," is making an effort to turn the old DC vs. Marvel Comics rivalry into a dance-off.
What you might have missed in the opening credits for "Peacemaker" are some of the background appearances by Judomaster, played by Nhut Le. The senatorial bodyguard and martial arts master is there in plain sight at the end of the dance number. Peacemaker hoists him up on his shoulder for all to see.
In an interview with The Direct, however, Le revealed that there were some special plans in mind for Judomaster, who otherwise isn't out in front dancing like the other characters. Le first said:
"We had a great choreographer Carissa Barton. In the beginning, I learned different pieces of the dance because they weren't sure how much of Judomaster they wanted to incorporate. But then later they wanted to do something special with him."
'Judomaster Is Always Stalking Peacemaker'
As for what exactly that special "something" with Judomaster in the credits entails, Le explained:
"If you look closely throughout the dance, Judomaster peaks out at certain parts of the wall, and not a lot of people have noticed that. So unless you're looking for it, you won't really see it. And so, the mood of that is that Judomaster is always stalking Peacemaker."
Can you spot Judomaster in the video above? Trying to find him in the background before he pops out of the floor at the end is like playing a game of "Where's Waldo?" with the movie "Apocalypto." (That's a real thing. We'll have a story about it up some time.) Personally, I had to slow the playback speed down to 0.25 in the video to catch Judomaster around the 43-second mark when he pokes his head out from around the wall behind Steve Agee's plainclothes computer nerd and A.R.G.U.S. agent, John Economos.
Are there more instances where Judomaster pops up in the background? You'll just have to obsessively pour over every frame of the video to find out.
Have fun with that, and have fun watching "Peacemaker" on HBO Max. The first season is already at its halfway point, with the fifth of eight episodes streaming this Thursday, January 27, 2022.