He is approached by the facility's warden and the director of A.R.G.U.S., Amanda Waller, to join a strike team called Task Force X along with other inmates on an infiltration mission to the remote island of Corto Maltese.

As of 2022, the character is a central figure in DC media, having appeared in two projects thus far: the feature film The Suicide Squad (2021) and the first season of the eponymous HBO Max streaming television series Peacemaker, both set in the DCEU.

This version of Peacemaker also makes a guest appearance as a DLC fighter in the video game Mortal Kombat 1, with Cena reprising his role.

[12] Cena had previously auditioned unsuccessfully for roles in both Marvel and DC Comics-based films, notably being rejected for both Cable in Deadpool 2 (2018) and the titular character in Shazam!

Cena originally envisioned the character as "a drill sergeant, Full Metal Jacket-esque personality", with the actor being told to change direction and emphasize his "do-gooder side" about 20 minutes into filming his first scene in-costume.

[13] Despite being portrayed as self-righteous, duty-driven, and egotistical in The Suicide Squad and continuing to flaunt that facade in Peacemaker, Smith is in actuality a broken, self-loathing man trying to find a purpose in the world, but is too haunted by the horrible actions he committed to adjust in a normal environment.

[21] Gunn used the series as an opportunity to explore current world issues through the title character,[17] in addition to expanding on his relationship with his father, which was alluded to in the film.

The squad is tasked with infiltrating Corto Maltese to destroy a Nazi-era laboratory called Jötunheim and its secretive "Project Starfish" before the new anti-American regime, which overthrew the island's government, can weaponize it.

While a separate squad distracts Corto Maltese's military, Chris accompanies Robert DuBois / Bloodsport, Cleo Cazo / Ratcatcher 2 and her pet rat Sebastian, Nanaue / King Shark, and Abner Krill / Polka-Dot Man in making landfall and reaching Jotunheim.

After joining up with survivors from the first squad, Col. Rick Flag and Harley Quinn, as well as receiving assistance from a Corto Maltesean resistance group called the Freedom Fighters, the squad capture Project Starfish's lead scientist, Gaius Grieves / Thinker, and force him to help them break into Jötunheim, allowing Chris, Harley, DuBois, Krill, and Nanaue to rig the facility with explosives while Flag, Cleo, and Sebastian accompany the Thinker to the laboratory.

Upon learning the truth behind Project Starfish, its inhumane experiments, and main asset Starro the Conqueror, Flag retrieves a hard drive containing information on it, intending to publicly leak it, but a remorseful Chris reluctantly kills him.

Harcourt and Adebayo assist Chris in evading them until Economos accidentally incriminates Auggie in the crime, leading to the latter's unintended arrest and incarceration.

Shunned by the team for the incident, Chris returns home and meets with Chase, during which they collectively discover that a device belonging to Sturphausen is actually a miniature spaceship.

The following day, Murn briefs the team on their first ops mission, directing them to assassinate United States Senator Royland Goff and his family, who are presumed to all be Butterflies.

A discovery Adebayo made the previous night leads Project Butterfly to the Glan Tai bottling facility, where they kill the Butterfly-possessed workers and an escaped zoo gorilla and Chris earns the team's respect.

While bonding on the way back, Chris invites Adebayo over to his trailer, where she secretly replaces his personal diary with a replica under Waller's orders.

Song arranges for Auggie's release and Chris' arrest, to the dismay of Deputy Locke, who is secretly collaborating with Murn unbeknownst to the rest of the team.

As Economos traces the Butterflies' activities to Coverdale Ranch, where the team suspects that they are utilizing a giant alien larva, or "cow", to mass-produce the fluid, Adebayo experiences guilt over hiding confidential information about the operation from Chris and Waller and discovering that Murn is a rogue Butterfly called Ik Nobe Lok who wants to stop his own species, who came to Earth after they killed their own planet.

Project Butterfly reunite at a nearby veterinary clinic, where Eagly is treated for his injuries and they learn Murn was killed by the Butterfly-possessed police officers.

Aggravated, Chris launches Adebayo at the Cow using his "human torpedo" helmet so she can destroy it while he kills Butterfly-Locke and Song's body, sparing "Goff".

[24] Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times would further add that Cena's performance as his "ironically named" character wound up adding "to a terrific ensemble and a deft balance of brains, heart and other viscera".

[25] Commenting on the chemistry between Cena's Peacemaker and Idris Elba's character Robert DuBois / Bloodsport, CNET's Richard Trenholm observed that a constant positive throughout the film was "The pair clashing hilariously as they try to one-up each other in homicidal creativity", further complimenting Cena as being "so good and so funny as the uptight Peacemaker, he seems like an entirely different actor from the block of wood who fell off the screen with a dull thunk in this year's Fast and Furious 9".

She further comments that "Cena has a great sense of humor and seemingly no shame as he plays a sad-sack heel whose best friend is his bald eagle sidekick, Eagly".

He likens Cena's presence and prowess in the series to physical comedy, iterating that "the bass has been cranked into the red every time he hits a wall or floor, letting us feel the heaviness of his elephantine body.