Peacemaker: Why The Name ‘Fitzgibbon’ Keeps Showing Up in James Gunn’s Work
The detective who returns in Peacemaker season 2 is just one of many Fitzgibbons in James Gunn's world.
Fans of James Gunn‘s work may have been surprised by the appearance of Detective Larry Fitzgibbon, played by Lochlyn Munro, in the latest episode of Peacemaker. No, they weren’t confused by the fact that Larry Fitzgibbon was killed by a Butterfly in season 1 and now is walking around again in season 2. That’s easy to explain: the Earth-1 Fitzgibbon died in season 2; it was the Earth-X Fitzgibbon who came by the Smith house in episode seven of Peacemaker‘s second season.
No, they might be confused because they recognize the name Fitzgibbon from Creature Commandos. In that show, frequent Gunn collaborator Michael Rooker voices Sam Fitzgibbon, a war memorabilia aficionado who acquires the defunct G.I. Robot—and then gets killed by G.I. Robot because Sam Fitzgibbon is a white supremacist and there’s nothing G.I. Robot loves more than killing Nazis.
But wait! Legendary comic scribe John Ostrander showed up as a scientist named Fitzgibbon in The Suicide Squad. Before that, a totally different Dr. Fitzgibbon, played by Robert Firth, treated the cancer-ridden Meredith Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy, and that’s a Marvel movie. Before that, the greatest American hero William Katt played a Sgt. Fitzgibbon in Gunn’s satirical comedy Super. And before that, Michael Cromien appeared in the horror movie Slither as a guy called Fitzgibbon, who gets killed by the invading alien beasties.
In short, James Gunn loves naming guys Fitzgibbon. And, with surprising regularlity, Gunn writes grizzly deaths for these guys. Does he really hate people named Fitzgibbon?
Actually, the opposite is true. Back in 2016, Gunn posted to the following message to his Instagram page: “My oldest friend in the world is Larry Fitzgibbon. We were raised next to each other in the suburbs of Manchester, Missouri, caused extraordinary amounts of trouble together in our teens, and moved out to California at almost exactly the same time.”
In short, Fitzgibbon lives (and dies) so often in Gunn’s work not because he hates the name, but because he loves it. And with all the multiverse shenanigans going on in Peacemaker this year, the Fitzgibbon possibilities are endless.
Peacemaker season 2 streams new episodes each Thursday night at 9 p.m. on HBO Max.
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Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!