The first episode of Peacemaker Season 2 begins with a recap, as television shows often do. However, while it’s largely limited to scenes from Season 1, which premiered in early 2022, it announces itself as encapsulating what happened “previously in the DCU” — including, spiritually, 2021’s The Suicide Squad and this summer’s Superman. These projects were all spearheaded by writer/director/DC Studios head James Gunn. So of course they’re all connected.
Such is pop culture in the 2020s, where the flagging fortunes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe haven’t prevented numerous other franchises from creating their own shared story-worlds, such as what’s going on with the worlds of John Wick and Legendary’s Monsterverse. What stands out about DC Studios, though, is the James Gunn difference: The return of Peacemaker, coming right after the Gunn-created animated HBO Max series Creature Commandos and Superman, firmly establishes the filmmaker’s voice as the central one to DC’s present — as well as its future.
As with Season 1 of Peacemaker, Gunn wrote every episode of the ultra-violent HBO Max series’s return, directing multiple episodes as well (Greg Mottola, Peter Sollett, and Alethea Jones handling the others). The new season keeps the focus on Chris Smith (John Cena), the titular superhero with a penchant for hard rock and running around in his tighty-whities, while it also splits apart and brings back together the eclectic ensemble surrounding him.
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At the end of Season 1, former operative Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) exposed the dark nature of the Project Butterfly operation she, Chris, and other members of their team had been working on, leaving most of them now looking for jobs outside of the paranormal-threats industry. So as Season 2 begins, Chris is trying to figure out his next steps, all while processing stuff like the death of his dad (Robert Patrick) and his complicated feelings towards Harcourt (Jennifer Holland). None of that is made any easier when he stumbles across another universe via his father’s “quantum unfolding storage area,” which is filled with doors to other worlds — and one door in particular offers him a glimpse at a better life for himself that’s tempting.
The plotting in the first five episodes provided to critics isn’t too intensive, a smart choice as it keeps the focus on this eclectic ensemble just being together. Danielle Brooks remains an emotional anchor for the series, bringing a lot of humor and heart with her, while Freddie Stroma continues to glory in the eccentricities of his own crime-fighting vigilante character. (Stroma’s penchant for oddball roles remains delightful: Over the past ten years, the guy has played a Prussian prince, a bimbo race car driver, a Westeros nepo baby, an H.G. Wells who accidentally time-travels to modern-day New York, and a fictional reality show contestant looking for love. A true renaissance man.)
Chris’s pet Eagly remains the very best bird CGI can create, and Steve Agee also returns as John Economos, now caught in an awkward position as he continues to work for ARGUS, now led by Rick Flagg Sr. (Frank Grillo, as previously seen in Superman). In the field, Economos finds himself stuck with the legitimately hilarious Tim Meadows as Fleury, who loves coming up with very bad nicknames for his colleagues. Meanwhile, Jennifer Holland still knows how to bite into a line of dialogue with steely edge, though the chemistry between her and Cena isn’t exactly electric. Their awkward relationship is the one part of this show that feels at all forced, which — considering how many truly outlandish events are swirling around — is wild to realize.
Peacemaker (HBO Max)
As for the show’s star, it seems unlikely that Cena will ever be the first professional wrestler to be nominated for an Oscar (Dave Bautista will likely beat him to that achievement in the next five years, unless Dwayne Johnson’s work in The Smashing Machine proves mind-blowing). He’s still more than capable as a lead, though — willing to do literally any absurd thing Gunn writes into the script, all while finding an emotional grounding for Chris’s ups and downs and really letting the character’s vulnerability play on his face.
Thanks to this emphasis on character, the first five episodes make for an engaging season of television, with some impressive fight sequences (and one drug-fueled orgy), given the smaller-scale budget. Yet it’s all tied into the larger universe at hand, with a surprising amount of The Suicide Squad in the mix — almost as if Gunn has been preparing for his eventual cinematic takeover of the DC universe since well before he and Peter Safran were officially handed the keys to the kingdom.
That aforementioned “Previously On…”, in fact, goes so far as to totally reshoot a scene from the Peacemaker Season 1 finale, which originally featured cameos from Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Ezra Miller’s The Flash (joking about a rumor involving Aquaman’s love of fish). The new version instead brings in cameos from some Superman supporting players (and a joke about vomit that’s honestly not as funny as the Aquaman one). There’s even the return of Michael Ian Black’s TV news host from Superman, in addition to appearances from Gunn favorites like Michael Rooker and Sean Gunn.
Filmmakers working on a certain level often build up their own sneaky sort of cinematic universe — the films of Kevin Smith are rich with such in-jokes, and just how many Quentin Tarantino characters have you seen smoke Red Apple cigarettes? (The answer is all of them.) Even in the MCU, while plenty of directors have been able to put their unique stamps on their movies — including Gunn himself with the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy — the franchise does still have a relatively consistent house style.
Peacemaker (HBO Max)
So in concept there’s nothing wrong with everything we’ve seen from DC Studios so far being very centered in Gunn’s point of view. It does, however, raise questions about what happens in the future, with projects like Craig Gillespie’s Supergirl (coming June 2026) and James Watkins’s Clayface (due September 2026) on the horizon. Can this franchise encompass additional voices, or will Gunn’s end up being the overriding one?
That honestly wouldn’t be the worst thing, presuming the right balance can be found. Gunn’s DC work so far has been notable for the way it celebrates the franchise’s oddballs, up to and including the Man of Steel. (What’s weirder than flying around in a cape being nice to people?) It’s a fresh approach in this current landscape, one that Superman proved could work for mainstream audiences. Peacemaker, meanwhile, is in no way made for mainstream audiences, thanks to its quirks and mature content (I mentioned the orgy, right?).
Yet it all works well enough to prove that Gunn is capable of operating within somewhat different tones, even within the same universe. And no matter what the angle, he’s prioritizing comic book fun. Which, after years of dreary muted tones and moody heroes, is a true relief.
Peacemaker Season 2 premieres August 21st on HBO Max, with new episodes debuting weekly on Thursdays. Check out the latest trailer below.
