Before diving into the season two premiere of Peacemaker (2022-), I decided to revisit the DCU movie that started it all: The Suicide Squad (2021). Not only does the film hold up incredibly well after the death of the previous DC Cinematic Universe from whence it came, but it remains one of my favorite comic book movies ever made, a shining beacon signifying why Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav chose writer/director James Gunn to be the shepherd of this new iteration of DC as a co-studio head alongside Peter Safran.
Gunn consistently puts his thorough knowledge of the characters and stories that make up DC Comics to task, providing an experience that feels authentic to the source material while putting every character’s humanity front and center. He strikes the perfect balance between wacky and sincere in each of his projects, creating something unique to the superhero genre. That same sentiment holds with the premiere of the second season of his successful Peacemaker series.
A lot has changed in the three years since the first season of Peacemaker wrapped, both on and off-screen. A major question going into the second season was how Gunn would address the fact that the show now exists in a different universe. Luckily, the majority of the show’s first season was primarily self-contained, besides a glaring scene in the finale featuring amusing cameos from the prior universe’s iterations of Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Flash (Ezra Miller).
Gunn promptly answers this question in the season recap montage before the actual episode even starts. By simply replacing Aquaman and Flash with Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), who audiences were just introduced to in Superman (2025), Gunn satisfyingly encourages viewers to go with the flow of the change rather than trying to devise an overly complicated plot to retcon everything that came before.
We’re immediately reacquainted with the Peacemaker squad, or as they called themselves in the previous season, the 11th Street Kids. Christopher Smith/Peacemaker (John Cena), still reeling from his actions both in The Suicide Squad and in the first season of Peacemaker, wants more than ever to be seen as a hero. He’s become so desperate for public appreciation and recognition that he auditions to become a member of the Justice Gang in a hilarious scene featuring Hawkgirl and Green Lantern.
Seeing these characters return so soon after Superman successfully makes Gunn’s new universe feel like a lived-in place with pre-established history. Events from Superman are referenced throughout the episode and will seemingly play a major role as the season continues, specifically in relation to the pocket universe technology used in the first season and in Superman by Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult).
One of the things I most respect about Gunn’s cinematic universe is his commitment to producing content for both family and mature audiences that all feel integral to each other. Superman was about as family-friendly as a movie can be, enhancing Gunn’s story and themes. There was no such safety to be found in Peacemaker season one, and there’s certainly none to be found in the second season, as is demonstrated in a graphic orgy sequence that takes place when Chris is at his lowest. While this sequence is completely unnecessary, it makes it clear that Gunn has free rein to bring engrossing stories to the screen in whatever way he chooses. While this may alienate some audiences from project to project, it sets the precedent that the DCU will take risks with each story it tells, something that the superhero genre desperately needs right now.
Comic book movie fatigue has only grown more prominent in the past few years, not due to audiences being bored with superheroes, but because they’ve been craving something different than what they’ve been seeing over and over again for the last 15 years. For the genre to continue thriving, studios and creators need to embrace new ideas, even if they may seem risky.
Gunn takes those risks, and at least from the start, it’s proving successful as Superman has outgrossed all three Marvel movies released this year, passing $600 million at the box office. This is, of course, nowhere near the success that Marvel consistently had before 2020, but it’s a promising start and a sign that audiences are excited about the fresh experiences being produced at DC.
As the second season of Peacemaker continues, it will be exciting to see how the foundation of the DCU will be further laid. It’s reassuring to know that Gunn’s priority remains getting these characters right and making them three-dimensional people viewers genuinely care about. The character dynamics in this first episode are just as strong as they were in the first season, and by having the season start with the squad disbanded, there is an immediate emotional response to hoping they come to a reconciliation by the time the story reaches its end.
Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) is the only member of the crew who still firmly has Chris’s back, but she isn’t in the best place herself. After exposing her mother’s operations, she finds herself living alone in a motel room, struggling to get back on her feet. In a scene she shares with John Economos (Steve Agee), the two exchange playful jabs about exactly how bungled her prospects currently are, with Economos humorously digging that she can’t even get a job at The Athlete’s Foot.
Scenes like this convey how these actors haven’t missed a beat since we last saw their characters. The energetic chemistry between them is just as strong as it was before. While Gunn’s humor occasionally approaches the territory of overstaying its welcome, as it tends to do in most of his projects, that issue is absent from this scene.
One of the most interesting threads this season will explore is Ecomomos’ ongoing relationship with A.R.G.U.S. and how he is the only member of the squad still working for the government organization, now reporting under Rick Flag, Sr. (Frank Grillo). Grillo returns after portraying the character previously in Superman, as well as the Creature Commandos (2024-) animated series. The groundwork is laid in this episode, setting up the obsession Flag has with taking Peacemaker down for killing his son. Although he doesn’t interact with Chris in this episode, their relationship will surely be a highlight as the season goes on.
The character who finds themself in the most interesting place, however, is Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), who, after getting ousted from A.R.G.U.S., is struggling to get a grip on her identity. In a phenomenally brutal fight sequence in which she picks a fight with a gang of bikers in a bar, she’s briefly able to take out her anger and frustration about losing everything via the only ways she was trained as an A.R.G.U.S. agent: kicking an exorbitant amount of ass. The sequence is energetically choreographed, reminiscent of some of the best action sequences Gunn has delivered in films like Superman and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).
Harcourt even pits herself against Chris, who hopes there’s a chance the two can still be together after forming a spark last season. Once those hopes are dashed, Chris is left in a drunken despair, venturing off into his father’s pocket universe to discover a door that leads to a dimension in which he has the life he’s always wanted. The potential consequences of Chris opening this door will be fascinating to uncover as the season unfolds.
Cena remains brilliant as Peacemaker. The role plays to his greatest strengths as an actor, allowing him the room to take risks and display more emotion than any prior role. At this point, Cena understands this character inside and out, and he runs the gamut of emotions in this first episode, alone. With how intriguing the story set up for this season is, I’m looking forward to seeing how many more layers Cena will be able to peel back by the time we reach the finale.
Based on this first episode, the second season of Peacemaker is looking very promising. Serving as writer and director of this first episode, Gunn successfully reacquaints the audience with the show’s characters while also smoothly bridging the universal gap that was established between seasons, answering every question fans had about how he would handle the changes. The story being set up for this season is one that bodes many possibilities, not only for the Peacemaker character but also potentially for the DCU at large.
As an entity, the new DCU is still relatively young, but it’s comforting to know that large steps are being taken to make it feel fresh while putting quality and characters above everything else.
Review Courtesy of Evan Miller
Feature Image Credit to Warner Bros. via Screen Rant
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