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A lot has changed in the three decades since John Cena next donned a foolish gold hat to enjoy the hapless hero Peacemaker. That includes James Gunn‘s elevation as co-head of DC Studios, where he has given the world a new reboot with an all-new interpretation of Superman.

Like any large change, the relaunch of the DC Universe raises a lot of concerns about what is and isn’t lore. But Peacemaker co-stars Steve Agee and Jennifer Holland reprised their jobs as officials John Economos and Emilia Harcourt in 2022’s Black Adam and 2023’s Shazam! So those videos count, right? Fury of the Gods.

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Not in this case, James Gunn rebuttes in no uncertain terms for Den of Geek. ” They’re not cannon! I detest it”! he pollutants.

For problems are to be expected when recreating an entire visual world. The gentleman Gunn is counting on to solve the situation is less likely, though. Gunn doesn’t enlist the help of the Man of Steel, but rather the man whose line has its second season debut just days after Superman flies into the venues.

That person is Peacemaker, a person who but devoted himself to promoting peace.

” There are certain items from the ancient world that we refer to in Peacemaker time 2, but until then, they’re never canon”, Gunn explains. ” Virtually everything from time 1 is cannon, but season 2 will explain all that is or is not lore”.

That’s a lot of significance to put on a regular Z-lister. Created by Joe Gill and Pat Boyette, Christopher Smith a. k. a. Peacemaker made his debut in 1966’s Fightin ‘ 5# 40, a combat comics published by the now defunct Charlton Comics. Before killing him off-screen in 1993, DC Comics gave Peacemaker another picture with a 1988 guitar set and a few guest appearances when the characters were acquired in 1983. A revived and recreated Chris Smith recently popped up in 2009 and subsequently disappeared again.

All of that changed in 2021, when James Gunn made Peacemaker a major part of his album DC film, The Suicide Squad. Unsurprisingly, Gunn chose wrestler-turned-actor John Cena for the part, which is even more surprising. Gunn then spun Peacemaker off into his own eight-episode HBO Max series in 2022, despite the fact that The Suicide Squad ended with Chris at death’s door after betraying his team and killing leader Rick Flag ( Joel Kinnaman ).

As Gunn ascends to co-head of DC Studios and reboots the DC Universe, a brand-new earth that began with the 2024 animated set Creature Commandos and appropriately kicked off with the eagerly awaited Superman, things are beginning to change.

Unlikely, Peacemaker is at the core of these changes with time 2 of his line arriving on HBO Max on Aug. 21, 2025. Peacemaker winter 2 puts Chris Smith deep into the new world, carrying over reports from Superman and yet clarifying some information about the celestial reset.

How does a low-ranking jerk like Christopher Smith deal with force? &nbsp,

A Great Name for a Super-Nobody

By 2021, John Cena had built a historic wrestling job, scored various blockbuster movie appearances, and even split a couple of singles. Why would someone of his appearance sign up to perform a figure unknown perhaps to most humorous fans? &nbsp,

” I wanted to work in the DC universe”, Cena asserts. Actually, the charm was working with James Gunn. He has a well-documented’ no jerk ‘ legislation, so I knew I’d been working with people who are polite and kind and make me better. That straight there is a’ yes’ for me, regardless of the material”.

Cena appears to be at odds with Christopher Smith, whom the actor describes as” starving to have real human companionship,” at first because of his desire to work with the right kind of people.

Peacemaker is a jingoistic meathead in The Suicide Squad, a mindless killer who becomes a secondary antagonist when his teammates turn against their handler, Amanda Waller ( Viola Davis ), the duplicitous head of the intelligence agency A. R. G. U. S.

However, when Gunn offered Cena the role, she didn’t respond. ” I have found that —uniformly — people dream of being a superhero”, Gunn says. ” There&#8217, s never been a person that I&#8217, d dealt with who was not incredibly excited about their costume”.

Gunn’s ability to tell difficult stories about apparently silly characters is also a plus. ” Whether dealing with Rocket Raccoon or Superman or Peacemaker, I start with the problem,’ What if this figure were true? What may lead them to the present-day location? These questions tell everything from individual motivations to wardrobe choices.

” Superman is an alien from outer space who wants kids and people to like him. That’s why he’s wearing the coat, Gunn explains. ” Peacemaker wants to become cool and instill fear in people, but he’s kind of an idiot”.Peacemaker may put anxiety because he looks like John Cena, but I don’t believe that picture’s instilling fear in anyone.”

Chris Smith does experience some self-awareness throughout Peacemaker, regardless of Gunn’s description. When he eliminates his friend and mentor Rick Flag in a quest for peace, Chris realizes that his definition of’ peace’ has been vague and fragmented and flawed,” Cena acknowledges.

Peacemaker‘s first season puts Chris on Project Butterfly, a minor assignment that gains importance when the alien butterflies he investigates invade Earth. Peacemaker confronts his father, Auggie ( Robert Patrick ), who controls a white supremacist terror cell as the armored White Dragon, and accuses Chris of killing his beloved older son Keith ( Liam Hughes ) along the way.

From these revelations, Chris Smith seems less like a thug and more like a man suffering from toxic masculinity. Cena sees these revelations as the main appeal of his character, despite his resistance to assigning a single specific meaning to the fact that “audiences can take away whatever they want.” &nbsp,

” Chris has regrets about what he did to Rick Flag and has a lot of troubles at home. His best friend, an eagle, is his best friend, and that, in my opinion, means a lot, “he chuckles.” Eagly]Peacemaker’s CGI-rendered avian sidekick ] is awesome, he&#8217, s a superstar, but Chris really has very few human companions. Like Vigilante [ Freddie Stroma], the people who want to be his friends, he rejects or acts like he’s better than them.

And yet, by the end of season 1, Peacemaker has stopped the invasion and faced down his father. More importantly, Christopher Smith has finally made friends, real human friends. And they’re just as flawed as he is.

Shakeup on 11th Street

Chris Smith arrives at a secret location for an interview in the first teaser for Peacemaker season 2. Across from him sits billionaire benefactor Maxwell Lord ( Sean Gunn ), flanked by two members of the Justice Gang, Hawkgirl ( Isabela Merced ) and the Green Lantern Guy Gardner ( Nathan Fillion ). As seen in Superman, the Justice Gang are the most important superhero team in the universe. Peacemaker is prepared to join their ranks after just protecting the planet from alien butterflies.

But when a tech error allows Smith to hear all of their snide comments, including Lord’s assessment that” this guy sucks,” Chris storms out of the building, his dignity in shambles.

Nobody is surprised that Peacemaker wouldn’t be greeted by those who interact with the Man of Steel, not even Cena. He was put on the Suicide Squad, and they’re not necessarily our best and brightest, “he points out”, but now he wants to make it to the big leagues.”

What is surprising, however, is that Chris finds comfort from Leota Adebayo, daughter of Amanda Waller. &nbsp,

Throughout the first season of Peacemaker, Adebayo was a reluctant participant in Project Butterfly, pushed into service by her mother and told to betray Chris. However, Adebayo and Chris ‘ relationship is drastically different in season 2.

” These two definitely love each other,” says Danielle Brooks, Adebayo’s Oscar and Tony-nominated performer”. They’re both fighting for the love of their parents, the people who raised them and left them kind of awkward.”

It might be that awkwardness that makes Chris and Adebayo bonded with the other weirdos in the series, which include not just Vigilante but also fellow A. R. G. U. S. agents Emilia Harcourt and John Economos. After some initial bumps, Chris and his friends finally connected over their mission against the butterflies and their love of hard rock music, calling themselves” the 11th Street Kids,” after the 1984 track by Finnish band Hanoi Rocks.

The Kids have splintered at the start of Peacemaker‘s second season as a result of Adebayo’s decision to let the rest of the world know about her mother’s actions at the end of the season. &nbsp,

John Economos is back on familiar ground, working for Waller”. Steve Agee, who has been playing Economos since The Suicide Squad, jokes,” I’m back at A. R. G. U. S., back on computers, doing my usual shit.” But familiarity does not mean life is better for the sad-sack nerd, last seen in Creature Commandos“. I don’t believe Economos has ever been at ease. He’s kind of been beaten down by life. He’s had a lot of jobs that haven’t been super pleasant, dealing with a lot of people who have n&#8217, t been super pleasant.”

Co-star Jennifer Holland claims that Emilia Harcourt, a capable but cold Emilia Harcourt, is not much better for her character. She’s in a worse place than she was in season 1. She is desperate and lost her job as a result of Adebayo’s leaks. Her whole life has been spent as a soldier, so she doesn’t have a whole lot of close personal relationships.”

Of course, a lack of personal relationships is the founding ethos of the 11th Street Kids, and it &#8217, s that desire for connection that binds the group together. Even Adebayo&#8217’s choice to reveal Waller to the world was an attempt to form a friendship with them.

” Leaking information about Waller was Adebayo being a team player, “explains Brooks”. She finally understood how important it was to be loyal and a part of something. Adebayo wanted to do the right thing and stand with the team that’s been standing with her. She showed her mother and the team whose side she was really on.”

Such loyalty declarations may convince Harcourt to forgive Adebayo, but they won’t make things any easier for the once-award agent.

” A lot of the characters have shifted in different ways,” Holland points out”. Adebayo was the new girl, Harcourt was a capable professional, and Peacemaker was the emotionally stumbling buffoon at first. Peacemaker has grown since season 1, and Harcourt has regressed in a lot of ways.”

Whatever growth the characters have experienced, they can’t escape their past demons. In Chris ‘ case, Rick Flag Sr., the new head of A. R. G. U. S., uses his position to exact revenge on the father who murdered his son.

” I’m the heavy,” says action veteran Frank Grillo, who reprises his role as Rick Flag Sr. from Creature Commandos and Superman“. Falke views metahumans as aliens. They’re beings who need to be controlled because it &#8217, s easy for them to get out of control. Cena’s character is the hero, regardless of his behavior, but as far as Rick Flag is concerned, Peacemaker’s a bad guy.”

Grillo begins to laugh as if cutting a wrestling promo. Peacemaker’s gotta go, he’s gotta feel the wrath.”

Four-Color Heroes in Gray Shades

So is Peacemaker the hero and Flag the villain? Or is it the other way around? In Peacemaker, the lens is completely transparent, which is a feature of Gunn’s design.

” In the DCU in general, we’re finding shades of gray in people’s morality,” says Gunn”. That applies even to the Justice Gang and Superman, who are both as good as you can get, but they’re corporate tools. It’s never a black and white thing.

” And then there’s Peacemaker, an incredibly complex and conflicted individual who has done a lot of incredibly bad things. But even he has a sensibility that has been downplayed by his father and society.

It certainly helps that Cena comes to the role with what he calls” a hardened shell”, developed through years in the ring. The audience for live wrestling is enthusiastic and, at times, unrelenting. The crowd will sing my theme song at the top of their lungs and will scream that I suck”, he says. That devotion to the part impresses his on-screen nemesis Grillo, who allows,” My hat’s off to John Cena because the way he plays Chris, you can&#8217, t help but love him”.

Cena and Grillo can show one another respect for one another because of their long-standing involvement in action entertainment. That background also prepares the actors for some intense fight sequences for Peacemaker‘s second season.

” I’m mostly self-assured, but I do have one significant fight scene with Cena.” It’s fun and brutal”, teases Grillo, before pointing to another castmate whose physical prowess impressed him. ” Jennifer Holland’s fight stuff is phenomenal”! he enthuses.

While thrilled with the end result of Harcourt’s massive episode one rumble, she’s quick to point out that it didn’t come to her easily. Without C. C. Ice, my stunt double, I couldn’t have accomplished it. She tirelessly trained with me”, Holland admits. ” All the stunt actors in that scene with me were training in the gym for weeks to get it right”.

In fact, everyone on 11th Street gets their big moments in season 2 if they choose to or not.

” John Economos is a reluctant hero”, laughs Agee. ” Almost everything he does goes against his own judgment,” he said. He’s very much like me. Honestly, though, I would be super stoked if I saved some people&#8217, s lives by killing a monster gorilla”, referring to Economos’s moment of gory heroism in the first season. ” I would be so excited,” he said.

Do You Really Wanna Taste It?

Peacemaker has to master the action scenes in a show about superheroes and alien invaders. But the cast found another, very different physical aspect of the show even more challenging. And, in a way, more important. The opening dance number was “absolutely dialed in,” Grillo explains. ” James was very serious about it”.

Every episode of Peacemaker season 1 kicked off with the entire cast dancing to” Do You Wanna Taste It” by Norwegian glam metal band Wig Wam. The song turned out to be a viral hit, inspiring hundreds of imitators on social media. For season 2, Peacemaker‘s dialing things up with a new song, new moves, and a much bigger cast.

” The cast has a lot more people in it. Tim Meadows and Frank Grillo and Sol Rodríguez and David Denman. There are so many people, Agee exclaims in some awe. ” It&#8217, s a huge dance number, oh my god”.

Even Brooks, who comes to the show with a theater degree from Juilliard ( a credit she puts into perspective by noting that” Juilliard really can&#8217, t prepare you for falling out of a giant alien cow” ), found the sequence challenging. You are aware of the times you need to rub your stomach and pat your head at once? That&#8217, s what it felt like”, she jokes. However, it really, really works once it clicks in the body and everyone is doing it all together.

” You’ve got this crazy cast of people who are totally one hundred percent in on this journey, and we’re doing this weird dance, and everyone is just ego aside”, adds Holland. ” You see someone like Tim Meadows really wanting to get it right, and it’s a really special experience”.

Agee concludes,” I was smiling ear to ear when I saw the dance number.” ” People are going to love it”.

The change in the opening credits is undoubtedly significant, and Peacemaker season 2 will likely receive a lot of attention for it. But there’s another change that Peacemaker needs to deal with in season 2: a reboot of the entire DC Universe.

A New Universe

On the one hand, Gunn has a straightforward explanation for those who don’t understand the status of the old stories in the new universe. ” Nothing is canon before Creature Commandos, but you can think of those other things as vague memories of things that happened, going back even to the first Suicide Squad”.

Gunn is also aware that these issues come with the territory. ” There are going to be mistakes when you &#8217, re building a world as large as these ones are, whether it’s Game of Thrones, Star Wars, DC or Marvel. It&#8217, s going to be complicated, you know”?

That is undoubtedly the case with the DC Universe, which has experienced numerous reboots since 1985 in the comics industry. As a longtime comic book fan himself, Gunn can roll with the changes.

He says,” I’m a balanced canon guy,” and that’s what he’s doing. ” On the one hand, people take it a little too far. Obviously, these are fictional stories, so we don’t have to pretend that they’re reality. However, these tales are meant to be set in the same world, and there is need to be a focus on how they relate to one another.

Such complications are worth it, especially for someone like Gunn, who gets to fill the universe with oddballs from the comics, even if he can’t get them all on the screen yet. He describes the long-running DC series about 31st-century teenagers as” a difficult thing to bring to life,” and he hasn’t yet developed a workable adaptation of his personal favorite, the magical imp known as Bat-Mite.

” I would love to be able to figure out a way to do Bat-Mite, or at least Peace-Mite, because I’m sure there’s an imp somewhere in the Ninth Dimension who worships Peacemaker. In fact, we see some imps in season 2 of Peacemaker“.

Gunn is undoubtedly not done with the DC Universe’s weirdos, which is good for Chris Smith. In fact, to hear Cena tell it, nothing can hold back Peacemaker, not even Gunn’s own rules.

Cena makes fun of James Gunn by saying that he already broke the sacred oath that he wasn’t bringing Peacemaker back after he passed away in The Suicide Squad. ” So I can confidently say that the future of Peacemaker is one that will defy the odds”.

That’s perfectly said, because when you’re talking about guys like Christopher Smith, “odd” is definitely the word.

On HBO Max, Peacemaker season 2 premieres on Thursday, August 21, 2025.

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