AEW Star Reveals Plans For Movie Based On Their Character
This "intergalactic former serial killer" could be heading to the silver screen.
AEW's Chris Jericho has revealed that there are tentative plans to make a move based around his Painmaker persona.
Speaking on Howie Mandel Does Stuff (as per WrestlingHeadlines), the current Ring of Honor World Champion revealed that not only is work already underway on a Painmaker graphic novel, but that the endgame is to spotlight this gimmick in its own feature film.
As Jericho detailed:
"I have this character that I play called the Painmaker, and I invented the character when I was wrestling in Japan because I wanted something a little more violent. Like, what would a serial killer look like if he was a pro wrestler? The character is really cool, and I thought, 'Okay, I have seen so many Spider-Man, Batman, Superman movies, how many more characters are there in these universes? They're just making the same ones over and over again. Somebody somehow is going to have to create a new superhero'. So, that's where the Painmaker came in."
The Ocho continued on:
"The idea is to make it into a movie at some point. That's my overall goal. We're just writing and illustrating the graphic novel now, so the idea is that the Painmaker is an intergalactic former serial killer. He's changed his life and he's not a serial killer anymore, but now he travels the galaxy hunting down other serial killers in different galaxies, different planets, so you could have, like, a giant scorpion serial killer, whatever. But the flaw is that he still has to kill innocent people from time to time, because it's just in his DNA. So, he's a flawed character."
A partly-reformed intergalactic murderer battling a giant scorpion serial killer? Well, that's certainly something...
While no details are known in terms of writers or artists for the Painmaker graphic novel, the Wizard is working with NFT company Semkhor on the project.
Bringing The Pain
For those only familiar with Chris Jericho's Painmaker persona for its outings in AEW, the gimmick debut back in 2017 as part of the nowadays Jericho Appreciation Leader's NJPW rivalry with Kazuchika Okada. With Okada famously known as the Rainmaker, Jericho opted to introduce a brutal alter-ego dubbed the Painmaker.
As for the Painmaker's AEW appearances, that persona first reared its head for Jericho's win over Nick Gage at Fight for the Fallen last year. Skipping ahead to 2022, and this violent alternate was revisited for the inaugural AEW World Champion's Barbed Wire Everywhere Deathmatch victory over Eddie Kingston at this past July's Fight for the Fallen.
When the Painmaker next resurfaces in AEW - or beyond - remains to be seen, but we at least now know that this side of the six-time WWE World Champion will be making its way to the printed page... and possibly the silver screen.