Peacemaker star Nhut Le revealed Judomaster’s sly role in the series’ opening credits sequence.
“If you look closely throughout the dance, Judomaster peeks 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,” Le told The Direct. Most notably seen at the dance’s 40-second mark, when Le pops from a background wall to stare down lead actor John Cena, the easily missed Judomaster details sporadically emerge during the elaborate dance number.
Le’s character Judomaster is a martial arts expert and senatorial bodyguard with mysterious intentions and uncertain loyalties within the series’ alien Butterfly conflict. Given the unique complexity of the character, Peacemaker creator James Gunn and credits sequence choreographer Charissa Barton were initially puzzled on how to include Judomaster into the cast-filled credits scene. “In the beginning, I learned different pieces of the dance because they weren’t sure how much of Judomaster they wanted to incorporate,” Le explained. “But then later they wanted to do something special with him.”
After his several Peacemaker-stalking pop-ups, Judomaster makes a grand entrance for the song’s finale. Emerging from an unseen floor space, crouching into a fight stance, Le steps before Cena and jumps into an acrobatic move. However, to make Judomaster’s fully exposed appearance a surprise for audiences, Gunn and Barton had to hide Le in a 3-foot by 3-foot space within the set floor. But despite his uncomfortable stand-by off-stage, Le was enthusiastic for the dance’s big finish, saying, “When they told me what they wanted to do, I was like, ‘Wait, pop out of the trap door, get hoisted on John [Cena’s] shoulders and end in some gymnastic pose? Let’s do it.'”
The 5-foot-6 actor admitted that cue-waiting in a cramped space proved difficult since he was also dressed in a skin-tight ensemble and a set-required COVID-19 mask. “I was like scrunched in there, and I was wearing the costume that was already tight, but I had that harness inside of it, and like the mask, and we filmed it during COVID-19, so I had to put on an additional mask, and at a certain point I’m like, ‘Wait, I can’t breathe, I need to get out of [here],'” Le said. “Because it was just too much, but I think it was worth it. It was a lot of fun to do.”
The last grand pose of the dance number ends with an arm-outstretched Judomaster propped on top of Peacemaker’s shoulder. Because of this challenging acrobatic move, safety measures were put in place to aid the actors. As Le explained, “Yeah, we did a lot of takes of it. I was on a harness, [and] it was on wires.” Although it took time for the Peacemaker cast and crew to perfectly film the final pose, the resulting credit sequence has successfully become a fan-favorite moment within the new hit series.
New episodes of Peacemaker air Thursdays on HBO Max.
Source: The Direct