Peacemaker‘s opening credits are a joy to behold. Courtesy HBO Max.

Peacemaker, James Gunn’s streaming continuation of his theatrical The Suicide Squad, starts off more or less where the movie left off. It’s only when you get to the opening credits that you figure out that this show might be something a little different.

The opening credits sequence, seen above, starts with John Cena, who plays the title character, getting his groove on to the funky strains of a song called “Do You Wanna Taste It”. Soon Cena’s character is joined by all of his straight-faced castmates, performing a dance routine with show-stopping choreography that includes a perfectly-timed appearance by the show’s breakout character, Eagly the American Bald Eagle.

The theme song is by Wig Wam, a Norwegian glam metal band, off their 2010 album Non Stop Rock’n Roll, and Gunn deliberately chose the 80s aesthetic of the sequence. “I really wanted to do a dance number where everybody was doing something incredibly ridiculous, and looked incredibly serious while they were doing it,” Gunn told Polygon.

https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1482002935269761024?s=20

Gunn also directed Guardians of the Galaxy, which released the Awesome Mix Volume 1 soundtrack that made as much of an impression as the movie did, with songs like Hooked on a Feeling” by Blue Swede and “Spirit In the Sky” by Norman Greenbaum. So it isn’t surprising that this project also uses music in a big way to evoke a certain mood.

Cena’s Peacemaker is a larger-than-life, throwback of a character, so it makes sense that his soundtrack is composed of hair-metal and glam-rock bands including 80s groups like The Quireboys or newer outfits like Foxy Shazam and Bang Camero. One of the highlights in episode one is Cena in his underwear, singing along to “I Don’t Love You Anymore” by The Quireboys, using a Magic Wand vibrator as a microphone.

If you want to make your own Peacemaker Eagle Hugs playlist, here are the songs from the first three episodes, out now. (HBO Max is releasing one new episode per week beginning Thursday.)

Episode one soundtrack with YouTube links:

Episode two soundtrack with links:

Episode three soundtrack with links: