-John, this is heavy, this is expensive,
but I'm keeping this. [ Laughter ]
-No, I'm a man of my word, and, technically,
I don't own it, but it's yours. [ Laughter ]
-So will I hear from lawyers?
-If you don't pick up the phone, you won't.
[ Laughter ] Right?
-Are you gonna get in trouble for doing this?
-Yes. Of course I am. [ Laughter ]
I can't even go anywhere with the costume.
They have, like, a person -- like, a person who travels
with the costume, and the helmet comes in its own thing,
and the person travels with the helmet.
They're like, "Here's the costume,
and then here's the helmet. Take care of it."
-I was gonna say -- I was gonna say to you --
I was gonna make fun of you and go like, "Oh, do you have
a security guard?" -No. You made fun of me enough.
-Thank you. -Yeah.
I was gonna say, do you have a security guard with you?
You're John Cena. You are your own security guard.
-No, it's for the helmet. It's for the helmet.
-It's for the helmet. -That is now not mine
and wasn't mine in the first place but now, somehow, you own.
[ Laughter ] -I think it's pretty cool.
I might just do it and just host the show with it on.
-It's actually really cool, because the audience
gets to see themselves on TV! -That's right.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I want to --
-That's not frosted tips, but it'll do.
-[ Laughs ] -We're kind of all winners here.
-That's the next bet. We've never talked --
You've been on the show, I want to say,
it's almost 15 times now.
We've known each other a long time, yeah.
And we've never talked about this --
-Thank you, guys. I appreciate that.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-No, we add the applause in later.
We add the applause in later. -Okay, cool.
-We do that to the monologue, as well.
We've had you -- You've been a guest 15 times.
We've never referenced the "You can't see me" move.
-Yeah! -Of where -- Like, what --
Like, what is the back story? -Okay. So, for those of you
who don't know, get the damn Internet!
-[ Laughs ] Yeah! Of course.
-I am -- I became a superhero long before donning
the Peacemaker costume.
I developed a special maneuver in the WWE,
called the "You can't see me," in which I put my hand
in front of my face and say, "You can't see me."
And the reason I did this is, because while we were making
the album to which my theme music is on,
my younger brother, Sean, was always our litmus test.
He kind of liked the same music, and he would never go
to the studio with us, so we'd come home with our tracks,
and we'd play it for him, and he was ruthless, man.
He would never be satisfied with any song.
And he heard, "The Time is Now" and just did this dance
that Tony Yayo did in of the G-Unit videos.
It was like he put his hand over his head and just kind of,
like, bobbed his head like that.
-Oh, yeah, I kind of remember that.
-And I was like, "Man, what are you doing?
That looked like -- is ridiculous."
He's like, "No, no, man. This is some Tony Yayo dancing,
doing his thing."
And I'm like, "I'll do it on TV."
And he's like, "I dare you to do it on TV."
[ Laughter ]
Little did he know, I'll do this on TV, so...
[ Laughter ]
It was before then. -Don't dare John Cena.
-So, basically -- basically, on a dare, by absolute chance,
I went out there, and I figured this wasn't visible enough,
so I wanted to do this. And the term "You can't see me"
is, like, "Well, you're not even on my level."
And then, like, years later, it just overcame
the meme culture, and now literally I'm invisible.
People are like, "Why is Jimmy Fallon
talking to an empty chair?" Like, so many people
are gonna say that. -Yeah, they really are.
-So I'm invisible now. -You are invisible.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-On a dare! By accident!
-I want to talk about "Peacemaker."
Gosh, it's funny. -Thank you.
-It is -- It's insane, as well.
-Thank you! -Is it you or is it James Gunn
or is it a combo platter of both?
-It's James Gunn, for sure. He's such an unbelievably
gifted story teller, and I think his ability
to just put together a great squad -- pun intended.
But the mind of James Gunn is -- -He wrote all of these?
-All of these, yes.
-When does he have time to do all this stuff?
-Well, so when we all really got locked down,
if you saw "The Suicide Squad" --
-Yeah. -You know, there's a --
[ Cheers and applause ] Thank you.
But Peacemaker's future is very questionable.
And he called me up in the middle of lockdown.
He's like, "Hey, man, I want to do a series on Peacemaker."
I said, "Hey, man, isn't Peacemaker dead?"
[ Laughter ]
And he was like, "No, no, I got it taken care of."
I said, "Okay. I'm in. No problem."
And I just let him go to work, and he wrote eight episodes
in eight weeks, and then we filmed
very shortly after that.
-I will just say this. Here's where you got me.
The opening theme song. -The big dance number.
-Dude, he's not kidding. -Dare you to skip the intro.
[ Laughter ]
-You did something that we've been wanting to do
is bring back the TV kind of theme-song intro.
And you come out -- -Not quite "Too Many Cooks,"
but, I mean, it's good.
-It is like solid gold is what I would call it.
Like the show, "Solid Gold." [ Laughter ]
It is like you come out, full on choreographed dancing.
Full on -- Serious face, by the way.
-Yeah. I mean, you'll all see it, I hope, on HBO Max.
[ Cheers and applause ] You'll all see it?
-Every cast member --
Every cast member comes out and introduces themselves,
and they're all dancing, too, and doing these --
It's so silly, I go, "Oh, my gosh.
He crushed it already." Before the show even starts.
Everything's funny. Your sidekick, your pet --
-The bald eagle -- Eagly. [ Laughter ]
-His name is Eagly. -Yeah, it is Eagly.
Yeah, it is Eagly. My eagle's name is Eagly.
[ Laughter ]
-Can we even explain what "Peacemaker" is all about?
-"Peacemaker" is about wanting to be a superhero.
Peacemaker is a guy who wears a uniform and has a set of skills
and some helmets that can do some pretty incredible things.
Peacemaker is an anti-hero because heroic and true acts
of heroism are virtuous, and Peacemaker is heavily flawed.
He's a human being, like all of us,
and he wants so badly to be accepted
as his perception of himself, which is a superhero.
-Yeah. -And that's kind of where
the humor of the show comes.
He's, like, way out of touch with reality.
He's got his kind of own lens on life
and in doing so, offends pretty much everybody.
-Yeah. I want to show everyone a clip.
Here is John Cena in "Peacemaker."
Take a look. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Why are you in your costume?
-[ Scoffs ] Costume...
This is a uniform.
And it's brand-new, so I've got to stretch it out,
make it more comfortable before we go on a mission.
-Maybe I'm stupid, but why would you even
want to wear that on a mission?
A bright red shirt and white pants
aren't exactly conducive to lurking in the shadows.
-People see this uniform, it strikes fear in their hearts.
-What people? The other people
at The Village People tryouts? -[ Laughs ]
-Why is there a bald eagle in your car?
-That's Eagly. You guys ordered without me?
-Eagly is your pet eagle? -Yeah.
-Is your dog named Doggie? -All right.
-Do you have a daughter named Daughtery?
[ Laughter ]
-Jealous of a guy's pet eagle much?
-Yeah! [ Cheers and applause ]
John Cena, everyone! "Peacemaker" premieres Thursday,
on HBO Max! -He looks good.