The Supervillain Suit in 'Peacemaker' Explained: Robert Patrick on Becoming the White Dragon

Peacemaker may seem like a supervillain but he's certainly not the wrongdoer viewers should be concerned about in his HBO Max show, that should be his father Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick).

Smith is a vulgar racist whose white supremacist views are tough to watch, like when he tells his son (John Cena) he should use the gear he made him to kill minorities.

But what no doubt came as quite the surprise to viewers is that he has his own supervillain alter-ego, the White Dragon, which was referenced at the end of Episode 2 "Best Friend, For Never."

**Warning: This article contains spoilers for Episode 4 of Peacemaker**

The character's villainous costume is revealed in Episode 4, titled "The Choad Less Traveled", when Peacemaker sees the White Dragon suit while sneaking into his father's secret lab to take new helmets for Project Butterfly.

Patrick and showrunner James Gunn spoke to Newsweek about the reveal as well as tackling themes of white supremacy through his character.

Robert Patrick on His White Dragon Costume

Episode 4 of Peacemaker may not show Patrick in the supervillain suit, but it sees Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) remarks to Peacemaker that there are weaknesses in his "dad's White Dragon costume".

The actor admitted to Newsweek he was "hesitant to talk about it" in much detail, but gushed: "That was really, really exciting. I have to be honest with you, to be fit with a suit and to realise that I was going to be a supervillain was just, I was so excited for that."

He went on: "And, you know, the suits are not cheap, they're expensive, and it was one of the things I sweated [about] while we were doing the production was, you know, 'I can't get fat, I can't gain weight.'"

Steve Agee, who portrays John Economos in the series, was in the interview alongside Patrick and said of seeing the costume for the first time: "I remember going into the wardrobe department, I had to get fitted for something, and I saw a Auggie's White Dragon costume and I walked in [and] I was like, 'Oh my God, who gets to wear this? This is amazing.' And they're like, 'oh, it's Robert's costume.'

"I was like, 'oh my god, it's almost a shame that such a massive piece of s**t gets to wear something so cool. It really is a cool costume."

Peter Safran, who is an executive producer for the series, added that the White Dragon costume was "a good example" of Gunn being given free reign to make the show he wanted with "no compromises."

He explained: "Everything we did is the same as the way we would do it if we were making the film version of White Dragon, or the film version of Vigilante."

James Gunn on Tackling Themes of White Supremacy in Peacemaker

Gunn explained to Newsweek that he wanted to examine themes of white supremacy in Peacemaker because then the show would reflect the real world.

"I think it's a real thing in our world and being able to present it in a fable is important to us," Gunn said. "And I think that, you know, from the beginning we come into the show going, 'Oh, my God, Peacemaker, he's such a piece of crap, I saw him in The Suicide Squad, I hate that guy.'

"And then you go, 'Oh, well, this is where he comes from.' He's sort of a big improvement on that. And right away, we really see this complicated relationship with Peacemaker loving someone who's not able to love him back, or willing [to], or whatever he is.

"The difference between Peacemaker, who's a bad guy in many ways but not rotten to the core, and an individual who was rotten to the core, and yet his whole life was screwed up because of his desire for his father, who's awful, to tell him he's okay and that really screwed up his entire life, along with other things that have happened."

Reflecting on presenting Auggie's vulgar personality and how comfortable he is using racist slurs, Gunn went on: "I didn't want to shy away from it, it was a difficult thing to write into the scripts because you don't want to McDonalds-ize white supremacy and make it not real.

"But you don't also have to, you know, be saying a bunch of things that trigger people or words that you use to affect people. So, it is a really delicate balance to have in the show and that was probably one of the things we talked about a little bit more, and we're very sensitive with as much as we were able to do it."

Peacemaker airs weekly every Thursday on HBO Max.