The Untold Truth Of Eagly From Peacemaker

"Peacemaker" has finally landed on HBO Max. The brainchild of James Gunn is a spinoff of his legendary 2021 film "The Suicide Squad," following the further adventures of Peacemaker, played by John Cena. Audiences may have assumed he died at the hands of Bloodsport (Idris Elba) during the battle of Corto Maltese, but a post-credits scene revealed that he was alive and well in the hospital. Off to the side are his old Belle Reve associates, who clearly have big plans for him.

As we learn on the HBO Max series, his new teammates have a special mission for him. They need him to terminate an individual associated with Project Butterly, but to carry out his mission, he'll do it in a way only Peacemaker knows how. He has his sort-of sidekick Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) by his side, as well as his trusty eagle companion, affectionately named Eagly. 

He may not have any lines, but Eagly has stolen the show in more ways than one. To enjoy the series to the fullest extent, here are some more details to make you appreciate the new TV icon even more.

As much as it may pain people to hear it, that's not a real bald eagle featured on "Peacemaker." Suffice to say, it would be rather difficult to train a real eagle to fly into a car on command and not try to attack John Cena at first glance. Besides, it just wouldn't be a James Gunn production if there wasn't a CGI animal there to win over the audience's hearts. 

Gunn actually spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about bringing Eagly to life. Fortunately, it was a lot easier to get done than some of his previous creations, particularly King Shark (Sylvester Stallone) from "The Suicide Squad." As he stated, "King Shark was very, very difficult to get right, and it went through a lot of different iterations. But Eagly is an eagle, so we went to Weta [Digital], who did a lot of King Shark, and [visual effects supervisor] Guy Williams, who I've worked with on 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,' 'The Suicide Squad,' and now on 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.' They already had an eagle, so we started there and then built our own eagle out of that." Sadly, unlike Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) or King Shark, Eagly doesn't talk, but that doesn't mean he's lacking in the talented voiceover department ...

Eagly lacks the ability to talk, so it would be easy to assume those behind the scenes simply got some bald eagle noises to place over the CGI creation. However, those squawking sounds you hear from the magnificent bird come from none other than voice acting legend Dee Bradley Baker.

Getting his start in the 1990s with voiceover projects in the likes of "The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest" and "Johnny Bravo," Baker has gone on to become the go-to guy for iconic voices with dozens of credits to his name in the likes of "SpongeBob SquarePants," "The Fairly OddParents," and "Invader Zim." He's especially suited to voice Eagly, seeing how he often voices animals and other creatures throughout his work, such as Waddles the pig in "Gravity Falls" as well as Appa and Momo on "Avatar: The Last Airbender." Eagly may not be able to say what he's feeling directly, but Baker more than brings emotion to the character.

Peacemaker doesn't exactly have the easiest time making friends, making his connection with Eagly all the more meaningful. The two share a special bond, exemplified in the first scene we're introduced to the eagle when Eagly wraps his wings around Peacemaker. He's probably the only one who's given the anti-hero affection in a long time, so it's easy to understand why the vigilante is so connected with the bird. 

As it turns out, that dynamic came from a very specific source, which James Gunn shared with his fans over Twitter. He embedded a YouTube link of a man named Jeff Guidry and his eagle, Freedom. Despite being a bird of prey, the eagle is exceptionally calm throughout the entire video, almost seeming to listen calmly to Guidry speak to the camera about his relationship with the bird. 

Eagly's name is pretty straightforward. He's an eagle, and as pointed out in "Peacemaker," his name is very much like owning a dog and naming it "Doggy." However, the basic naming formation apparently hasn't made it any easier for some people to figure out how to spell it. 

When a "Peacemaker" trailer came out in October 2021, HBO Max naturally took to Twitter to promote it. When one user commented, "Need that eagle in my life," the HBO Max account responded, "We could all use more Eagley in our lives." Fortunately, James Gunn is very much an online person, and when he noticed the misspelling, he was quick to chime in, "That's 'Eagly,' HBOMax." Of course, if you watch "Peacemaker" with the subtitles on, you're already well aware of the fact that "Eagly" doesn't have an extra "e" in there. It's an important distinction to make so that you don't make the same mistake when you go on social media yourself to praise the very good bird.

It's become customary for streaming services to put a "Skip Intro" button at the beginning of TV shows. It might make sense for some, especially when people binge-watch certain series. They want to get to the meat of the episode without watching the same intro over and over again. However, HBO Max would do well to get rid of that button for "Peacemaker" because we can't think of a single person who would ever want to skip the amazing, '80s hair metal-inspired opening credits to "Peacemaker."

Not only is it catchy, but it also introduces the audience to every central character who will appear throughout the series, including the wonderful Eagly. As James Gunn mentioned in an interview with Rolling Stone, it was always his intention to include Peacemaker's pet eagle in the credits: "I wrote the dance scene into the first draft of the first script. I wrote the first script in a week, probably wrote the first few pages in five hours, and wrote Eagly into the dance scene within those five hours. I recently came across a storyboard I made that has those exact positions at the end, including Judomaster on Peacemaker's shoulders and Eagly in front."

One thing's clear from all of this: Eagly's a very good boy and is very much worthy of a spinoff of his own.