Peacemaker S2 Set in New DCU, But Still Canon, Says Gunn

HBO Max wowed San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend with the official trailer for Season 2 of Peacemaker, the Emmy-nominated DC spinoff series helmed by James Gunn. The trailer gives the first long-awaited look at what’s in store for the titular superhero, played by John Cena, and the post-credits scene in the final episode of the season suggests that things are going to get even bigger, weirder, and a little sadder.

Peacemaker’s eight-episode first season took place five months after the events of The Suicide Squad (2021) and the ill-fated Corto Maltese mission that took place during the opening moments of that film. Christopher Smith, AKA Peacemaker, survived his near-death brush with a bullet during his “suicide mission” after getting help from his allies on Team Psykhe. He also survived against all odds, as the second episode revealed that his entire team died of the toxic gas that killed most of the Task Force X team members in The Suicide Squad.

Smith, in turn, is recruited by the U.S. government for a secret mission codenamed “Project Butterfly.” He is assigned to a new team comprised of Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji), a Green Beret major. He is also supported by A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economos (Steve Agee), NSA agent Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), and newly recruited veteran Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks).

Project Butterfly is anything but a typical government operation. The team is tasked with stopping a newly discovered alien species that arrived on Earth as parasitic butterflies that inhabit human hosts. In the last episode, Peacemaker and his team go on an extended mission to hunt down the creatures that are hiding out in a ranch in the remote backcountry. The showdown ends in a bloody multi-level carnage as the mismatched team takes on the bugs in a desperate struggle to the death. In the end, the team prevailed, and they all escaped with their lives, although their scars are far more than just physical.

Peacemaker Season 2, however, will open up in a much-altered DCU. Gunn said during the Hall H panel at SDCC that Season 1 was the last season set in the old DCEU, with Season 2 opening in the all-new DCU, which he formally introduced as part of his broader “Gods and Monsters” slate. Gunn, however, confirmed that past continuity is canon with some “natural exceptions” like a few “Justice League cameo things.”

Cena will return as Peacemaker and Brooks as Adebayo, as will Holland, Agee, and Freddie Stroma as the lovably crazy Vigilante. Nhut Le also returns as Judomaster, as does Eagly, Peacemaker’s bald eagle sidekick. Robert Patrick will also return as Peacemaker’s dead father, Auggie Smith. Frank Grillo will be new this season as Rick Flagg Sr., the late Rick Flagg’s father, who was killed in The Suicide Squad by Peacemaker. Flagg Sr. will also be leading A.R.G.U.S., where he wants revenge for his son’s death. Tim Meadows, Sol Rodriguez, and Michael Rooker will also join the cast as agents Langston Fleury, Sasha Bordeaux, and Red St. Wild, who has been described as Eagly’s “nemesis.”

In the official synopsis, Chris Smith will be confronting the personal, emotional, and psychological costs of his past life of violence, as well as having to contend with his newfound desire to be a better person. He still wants peace at all costs—but this time, he wants to be a hero instead of just doing the bidding of his superiors.

The season’s teaser, released back in May, was the first real look at what to expect from this new season. Set to the tune of Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord,” the seven-minute, three-second short had several notable glimpses of what the second season holds, starting with a failed audition of Chris for a Justice League movie. Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders (Isabela Merced), and Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), all of whom appear in this year’s Superman, also make quick cameos reprising their roles from the DCEU film.

The teaser also provided a quick check-in with some familiar faces. Adebayo is “living in the worst level of Grand Theft Auto,” according to Economos. Harcourt is reportedly in need of a “closet-level intervention” for what is described as “a particularly severe form of toxic masculinity,” and Vigilante has ended up on the “food service industry’s lowest rung.”

The trailer’s big reveal? A dimensional portal. In one quick moment in a bathroom, Chris steps into a parallel universe and finds a doppelgänger version of himself, but this version is already well-known and loved as a true hero. Frustrated with his own life and the fact that his love life is still a disaster, he almost tries to make the jump and stay. Of course, he can’t outrun his past for long, and Harcourt has the last word: “No matter how green the grass is over there, you belong here. With us.”

James Gunn, who attended the Hall H panel at SDCC with the rest of the cast, also gave his official synopsis of the new season during SDCC. “I like TV shows where the characters don’t just return every year, or every season, and they’re the same characters,” Gunn said in his director’s statement on the season. “I want to see change, and sometimes regression. This Peacemaker is a different guy this year. He’s dealing with the demons that he discovered at the end of last season and trying to come to grips with that, and then the world is not accepting him the way he is. They aren’t accepting him as a hero.”

Season 2 of Peacemaker debuts on August 21, 2025, exclusively on HBO Max.