Early Thursday morning, HBO Max debuted the first three episodes of Peacemaker, the series spinning off John Cena‘s clueless vigilante character from writer-director James Gunn‘s The Suicide Squad.

Gunn surprised fans by announcing he was already at work on the show shortly after the movie wrapped. “I think it took him by surprise as well,” admits The Suicide Squad co-star Jennifer Holland, Gunn’s longtime girlfriend, who also made the jump with Cena to Peacemaker. She reprises her role as NSA agent Emilia Harcourt.

Holland explained to ABC Audio that COVID played a big part in the show’s creation. “I mean, it was immediately after we got back from…[The Suicide Squad] shoot that everything kind of started shutting down and all this craziness happened…”

She adds, “During…such a sort of unknown territory that we were in with COVID, not knowing…how long we were going to be experiencing this — it turns out a lot longer than we thought — [Gunn] just instantly started writing something to sort of soothe himself…And I think it was just kind of getting all of his emotions out about what was going on…”

In Peacemaker, Holland’s Harcourt is stuck with working with Cena’s character. Her team, it should be said, has no trouble making fun of him behind his back — and to his face.

“In general, she’s very dry and cold and sarcastic, but, you know, when it comes to Peacemaker, I think she just doesn’t care if she hurts his feelings. She feels that he deserves everything that comes at him at this point.”

“In The Suicide Squad, she was…just there to sort of facilitate the Squad’s mission,” Holland explains. “And so getting to explore the different sides of her training and abilities in the show was an absolute blast.”