Peacemaker Season 2: Exclusive Look at James Gunn’s Next Step in the DCU After Superman

This content appears in DEN OF GEEK magazine’s newest matter. You can read all of our newspaper stories below. In the three decades since John Cena next wore a careless metal hat in the role of Peacemaker, a lot has changed. That includes the rise of James Gunn to co-head of DC Studios, from which ]… ]

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In the three decades since John Cena next wore a ridiculous metal hat in the role of Peacemaker, a miserable hero, a lot has changed. That includes the rise of James Gunn to co-head of DC Studios, from which he’s given the world a new reset, perfect with an all-new taking on Superman.

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

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No so, James Gunn tells Den of Geek in no uncertain terms. They’re not cannon, they’re! I hate it”! he pollutants.

When recreating an entire visual world, for migraine are expected. What’s less expected, however, is the man who Gunn’s calculating on to sort it out. Gunn does not seek the assistance of the Man of Steel, but rather the person whose television show has its second season launch just before Superman enters venues.

That gentleman is Peacemaker, a man who loves harmony so much, he’s willing to fight for it.

” There are certain items from the old world that we refer to in Peacemaker time 2, but until then, they’re never canon”, Gunn explains. ” Second year will explain everything that is or is not canon, but essentially everything from year one is.”

That’s a lot of significance to put on a persistent Z-lister. Christopher Smith, aka Peacemaker, made his comeback in 1966’s Fightin’ 5# 40, a war comics that was published by the now-defunct Charlton Comics. He was co-written by Joe Gill and Pat Boyette. When DC Comics acquired the Charlton figures in 1983, they gave Peacemaker another picture with a 1988 guitar set and a handful of visitor looks before killing him off-panel in 1993. A revived and reconstructed Chris Smith recently popped up in 2009 and subsequently disappeared again.

All of that changed when James Gunn made Peacemaker a significant component of his album DC film, The Suicide Squad, in 2021. Even more amazingly, Gunn cast wrestling singer and actor John Cena in the position. Despite the fact that Chris was put at the death’s door in The Suicide Squad after betraying his team and killing leader Rick Flag ( Joel Kinnaman ), Gunn then spun Peacemaker off into his own eight-episode HBO Max series in 2022.

Today things are changing again, as Gunn has ascended to co-head of DC Studios and rebooted the DC Universe, a new world that began with the 2024 animated line Creature Commandos and effectively kicked off with the much-anticipated Superman.

Unlikely, Peacemaker is at the core of these changes with time 2 of his line arriving on HBO Max on Aug. 21, 2025. Chris Smith digs deeply into the new world in Peacemaker season 2, bringing back some Superman-related revelations and providing some clarifications about the celestial reboot.

How does a low-ranking quirky like Christopher Smith handle the pressure? &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 a person of this caliber sign up to enjoy a character that is unfamiliar to the majority of comic book fans? &nbsp,

Cena claims that” I wanted to work in the DC universe.” ” The charm, truly, 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 is true, regardless of the source material, there is a “yes” for me.

At first glance, Cena’s desire to work with the right type of people seems to set him at odds with Christopher Smith, whom the actor describes as” starving to have real human companionship”.

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

However, Gunn got no opposition when he offered Cena the piece. ” I have found that —uniformly — people dream of being a superhero”, Gunn says. There has never been a man I’ve dealt with who wasn’t particularly excited about their costume.

It even helps that Gunn tells sophisticated narratives about apparently crazy characters. What if this figure were true, whether it was Rocket Raccoon, Superman, or Peacemaker? What may take them to the place where they are nowadays?’” These questions remind everyone from individual motivations to wardrobe choices.

” Superman is an alien from room who wants kids and fans,” he says. That’s why he wears the match”, Gunn observes. Peacemaker wants to be nice and make people afraid, but he’s kind of an idiot. Because he looks like John Cena, Peacemaker does make people afraid, but I don’t believe that the costume is.

Whatever Gunn’s information may advise, Chris Smith does acquire some self-awareness throughout Peacemaker“. When he eliminates his friend and mentor Rick Flag in a search for peace, Chris realizes that his explanation of’ serenity’ has been obscure and scattered and weak,” Cena acknowledges.

Chris is assigned to Project Butterfly, a small task that becomes significant as the alien butterflies he investigates, in the first season of Peacemaker. Along the way, Peacemaker confronts his father, Auggie ( Robert Patrick ), who leads a white supremacist terror cell as the armored White Dragon and blames Chris for the death of beloved older son Keith ( Liam Hughes ).

Chris Smith appears to be more like a person suffering from toxic manhood than a criminal, according to these revelations. Although reluctant to attach one particular meaning to his character’s situation —”audiences may take away whatever they want, “he insists—Cena sees these disclosures as the writer’s major appeal. &nbsp,

Chris regrets what Rick Flag did to him and is in a lot of trouble at home. An owl is his best friend, I think that says a bit, “he smiles”. Although Eagly [Peacemaker’s CGI-rendered birds sidekick ] is great and a superstar, Chris actually has very few human companions. The people who want to be his friend, like Vigilante] Freddie Stroma], he pushes away or acts like he’s better than.”

And still, by the end of winter 1, Peacemaker has stopped the war and faced down his parents. More crucially, Christopher Smith has now established true human friends. And they’re really as messed up as he is.

11th Street Reshuffle

In the first trailer for Peacemaker year 2, Chris Smith arrives at a key area for an appointment. 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 ). The Justice Gang are the most significant hero team in the world, as seen in Superman. And, having really saved the world from mysterious moths, Peacemaker is ready to join their ranks.

However, when a technical problem allows Smith to discover all of their disparaging responses, including Lord’s analysis that” this man sucks,” Chris storms out of the building with his dignity in disarray.

Nobody’s surprised that Peacemaker wouldn’t be welcomed by those who rub shoulders 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 solace in Leota Adebayo, the daughter of Amanda Waller. &nbsp,

Adebayo’s mother pressured her into service and told to betray Chris throughout Peacemaker‘s first season, and she remained a reluctant participant. But in season 2, Adebayo and Chris have a very different relationship.

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

It might be that awkwardness that helps Chris and Adebayo bond not only with one another, but also with the other weirdos in the show, which include not just Vigilante, but also fellow A. R. G. U. S. agents Emilia Harcourt and John Economos. After going through some initial rocky patches, Chris and his friends came together to talk about their fight against the butterflies and their love of hard rock music, adopting the name” the 11th Street Kids,” in honor of the Hanoi Rocks track from 1984.

At the start of Peacemaker‘s second season, the Kids have fragmented, due in part to Adebayo’s decision to reveal her mother’s actions to the rest of the world at the end of the season. &nbsp,

John Economos is back at work for Waller and is familiar. I’m back at A. R. G. U. S., back on computers doing my usual shit,” chuckles comedian Steve Agee, who has been playing Economos since The Suicide Squad. However, being well-known does not mean that a sad-sack nerd like you saw in Creature Commandos is happier. I don&#8217, t think Economos has ever been comfortable. He’s kind of been beaten down by life. He’s worked a lot of jobs that haven’t been particularly pleasant, and he’s dealt with a lot of people who haven’t been particularly pleasant.

According to co-star Jennifer Holland, things aren’t too much better for her character, the capable but cold Emilia Harcourt”. She’s in a worse situation than she was in season 1. She lost her job after Adebayo’s leaks, and she’s desperate. Her whole life has been spent as a soldier, so she doesn’t have a whole lot of close personal relationships.”

Of course, the 11th Street Kids ‘ ethos, which includes a lack of personal connections, is the group’s bond, and it &#8217 ;s desire for connection is that. Even Adebayo&#8217, s decision to reveal Waller to the world was an attempt to bond with them.

” Leaking information about Waller was Adebayo being a team player,” explains Brooks. She finally understood what it was to be part of something and to be loyal. Adebayo wanted to do the right thing and stand with the team that’s been standing with her. She revealed to her mother and the team who were truly with her.

Such declarations of loyalty may be enough to get Harcourt to forgive Adebayo, but it’s not going to make things any easier for the one-time agent.

” A lot of the characters have shifted in different ways,” Holland observes. At first, Adebayo was the new girl and Harcourt was capable professional and Peacemaker was the emotionally fucked-up buffoon. Peacemaker has grown since season 1, and Harcourt has regressed in a lot of ways.”

Whatever evolution the characters have gone through, they are unable to turn away from their past demons. In Chris’s case, those demons include the new head of A. R. G. U. S., Rick Flag Sr., who uses his position to get revenge against the man who killed his son.

Action legend Frank Grillo reprises his role as Rick Flag Sr. in Creature Commandos and Superman, saying,” I’m the heavy.” Flag sees metahumans as aliens. They’re beings who need to be controlled because it &#8217, s easy for them to get out of control. Regardless of how he acts, Cena’s character is the hero, but as for Rick Flag, Peacemaker is a bad guy.

As if cutting a wrestling promo, Grillo starts to laugh”. Peacemaker must leave and experience his wrath.

Four-Color Heroes in Shades of Gray

So is Peacemaker the hero and Flag the villain? Or the other way around? Moral compasses aren’t so clear in Peacemaker, and that’s all part of Gunn’s design.

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

” And then there’s Peacemaker, a highly conflicted and complex individual who has committed many highly evil deeds. But even he has a sensitivity that &#8217, s been bashed down by his father and society”.

It is certainly helpful that Cena enters the role with what he refers to as” a hardened shell,” which he developed while working in the ring. ” The live wrestling audience is enthusiastic and at points relentless. The crowd will sing my theme song at the top of their lungs and will scream that I suck”, he says. His on-screen nemesis Grillo, who allows,” My hat’s off to John Cena because his play Chris, you can’t help but love him,” impresses with his devotion to the part.

The respect that Cena and Grillo can show one another comes in part from their long history working in action entertainment. The actors get some intense fight scenes for Peacemaker‘s second season thanks to that background.

” I’m mostly contained, but I have one big 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 action is incredible! he enthuses.

While thrilled with Harcourt’s massive episode one rumble, she quickly points out that it didn’t come to her quickly. ” I couldn’t have done it without my stunt double, C. C. Ice. 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, all of the 11th Street Kids get their big moments in season 2… whether they want to or not.

Agee chuckles,” John Economos is a reluctant hero.” ” Pretty much everything he does is against his better judgment. He’s very much like me. Sincerely, though, I would be extremely excited if I killed a monster gorilla in the first season to save some people’s lives. ” I would be so jazzed”.

Do You Want to Try It Really?

As a show about superheroes and alien invaders, Peacemaker has to nail the action scenes. But the cast found another, very different physical aspect of the show even more challenging. And perhaps more significant. ” We really had to get the opening dance number dialed in”, reveals Grillo. James took it very seriously.

Every episode of Peacemaker season 1 opened with the entire cast, in costume, 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. Peacemaker is adjusting things up for season 2 with a brand-new song, new techniques, and a much bigger cast.

” There are so many more people in the cast. David Denman, Sol Rodrguez, and Tim Meadows. There are so many people”, says Agee with some awe. ” It&#8217, s a huge dance number, oh my god”.

Even Brooks, who has a theater degree from Juilliard ( a credit she makes in part by noting that” Juilliard really can’t prepare you for falling out of a giant alien cow ), found the sequence challenging. ” You know when you have to pat your head and rub your stomach at the same time? She makes fun of how it felt like that,” and that’s what it felt like.” ” But once it clicks in the body and everybody is doing it all together, it really, really works”.

” 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. It’s a truly special experience to witness someone like Tim Meadows really wanting it to get it right.

” The first time I saw the dance number, I was smiling ear to ear”, Agee concludes. ” People will adore it,” the saying goes.

Clearly, the change in the opening credits is a big deal, one that’s sure to draw a lot of attention to Peacemaker season 2. 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 one hand, Gunn has a simple explanation for those who don’t understand the status of past stories in the new universe. Nothing canon exists prior to Creature Commandos, but those other things can be considered hazy memories of events that date back as far as the first Suicide Squad.

On the other hand, Gunn also knows 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 will be challenging, I assure you.

That’s certainly true of the DC Universe, which has already been rebooted in the world of comics multiple times since 1985. Gunn can adapt to change because he has a long history of comic book fans.

” I&#8217, m a balanced canon guy”, he observes. ” On the one hand, people take it a little too far. We don’t have to pretend that these are real because these are fictitious stories, of course. But at the same time, these stories are supposed to be in the same world, and you need to pay attention to the connection between things”.

Such difficulties are worth it, especially for someone like Gunn, who fills the universe with strange characters from the comics even if he can’t yet get them all to the screen. ” The Legion of Super-Heroes is a difficult thing to bring to life”, he says of DC’s long-running series about 31st-century teenagers, and he hasn’t yet figured out how to adapt 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 Season 2 of Peacemaker, there are some imps.

Clearly, Gunn isn’t done with the weirdos of the DC Universe, and that’s good news for Chris Smith. Nothing can stop Peacemaker, not even Gunn’s own rules, as Cena has it to say.

” James Gunn made a sacred oath that he’s not bringing characters back from the dead, and he already broke that by bringing Peacemaker back after he died in The Suicide Squad“, teases Cena. ” So I can confidently say that the future of Peacemaker is one that will defy the odds”.

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

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

The first episode of Peacemaker Season 2: An Exclusive Look at James Gunn&#8217’s Next Step in the DCU After Superman ran through Den of Geek.