‘Peacemaker’ season 2 enters a multiverse of sincerity
Coming hot off the heels of 'Superman', season two of 'Peacemaker' is showrunner James Gunn's most important DCU project yet
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UNDER THE JAMES GUNN and Peter Saffran co-administration at DC Studios, we’re about to enter a multiverse of sincerity. It is, after all, the bread and butter of its competitor, and Gunn’s former employer, Marvel; it takes a high-strung producer to weave several storylines into one marquee blockbuster. Or with what’s to come with Avengers: Doomsday, banking on a little audience amnesia, too. As the box office numbers demonstrate, we’re all in for the ride.
Since being hired by Warner Bros. in 2022 to orchestrate the long-term trajectory of its DC IP, Gunn has been ordering one animated and two live-action films a year, as well as TV shows that will primarily stream on HBO Max. It’s a full set menu year-on-year of establishing new bands of characters (Peacemaker), while pivoting some (The Suicide Squad), or recasting others (Superman). Now three years in, Gunn and Saffran have enough standalone content to start cashing in on layered cameos and crossovers.
How Peacemaker will change Gunn’s plans for the DCU
That said, you should watch Superman before the show premieres on August 22 – that is, if you haven’t come out from under that rock yet. Season two takes place six months after John Cena’s Christopher “Peacemaker” Smith (the Wonder Bread of names) and Task Force X defeated the parasitic alien butterflies from populating the rest of Earth. As the gang made their heroic walking-away-from-battle walk, they were met on the field by a few members of the Justice League, albeit in silhouette. While it ended with cameos from Jason Mamoa’s Aquaman and Ezra Miller’s The Flash making it in the nick of time (budget and scheduling perhaps didn’t permit Gal Gadot or Henry Cavill), season two adds in that Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) and Hawk Girl (Isabela Merced) were also there to observe the band of misfit anti-heroes. (It’s that amnesia, huh?)
Aside from my cynicism for the cheap thrill, Gunn admitted at the season two premiere in New York this week that the new season is very important for his plans going forward. “Superman leads directly into Peacemaker; it should be noted that this is for adults, not for children, but Superman leads into this show and then we have the setting up of all of the rest of the DCU in this season of Peacemaker, it’s incredibly important,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “Lots of guest stars coming up, lots of characters that are showing up that we’ve already met in Superman. I don’t think there’s anything that I’ve ever done that I love more than this season of Peacemaker, so I’m so excited for people to see it.”
What to expect from Peacemaker season 2
With Amanda Waller’s (Viola Davis) A.R.G.U.S. now under the helm of Rick Flag Sr (Frank Grillo), and Project Butterfly completed, Peacemaker and his black-op handlers are the freelancers of superheroes – they’ve got nothing going for them in this slow period after saving the world. We find Peacemaker, Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), Adrian/Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), Leota (Danielle Brooks), and John Economos (Steve Agee) deeply unsatisfied in their side-quests.
Resting on his laurels, Peacemaker wants to rebrand himself as a serious superhero, so he goes for a Justice Gang audition in front of Green Lantern and Hawk Girl. Emilia is seeing a therapist to work out another outlet besides violence to express her deadly skills. Vigilante has a grimy new job at a fast-food chain. Economos isn’t happy with the change of management at A.R.G.U.S.; Flag orders him to keep an eye on Peacemaker from a decrepit, incognito van. Leota and Keeya are still not together, despite the former’s efforts to rebuild trust.
Obviously, Peacemaker doesn’t make the cut, which again doubles down on how he’s dealing with the trauma of killing his neo-Nazi father/White Dragon (Robert Patrick). Plumbing new depths of despair, he does some coke and smokes some weed, and before we know it, he’s hosting a full-blown orgy. Through all the drugs and aforementioned adult content Gunn warned about, Peacemaker stumbles back into his father’s pocket universe, where he finds a door into an alternate reality that offers him a second chance of sorts.
Peacemaker and the multiverse of sincerity
Throughout season two, Gunn continues his regular beat of sincere superheroism. While that attribute was laughable in the first season, it’s since proven to be the through-line in how he’s positioning the DCU. Certainly, after Superman, which was labelled “Superwoke” by conservative detractors, sincerity is Gunn’s strength to make his output timely. It also seems to be what was missing from its competitor. Thunderbolts* earlier this year, another motley crew of anti-heroes led by Florence Pugh’s Yelena/Black Widow, received its flowers for its portrayals of grief and trauma. With Gunn at DC, Marvel seems to be playing catch-up.
In saying that, Cena continues to be Peacemaker‘s strongest attribute, portraying a macho man with baggage – with goofy powers enabled by his collection of helmets – in an unlikely tragicomedy. I also mean that literally, in the sense that his veiny musculature puts other costumes with padded abs and computer-generated physiques to shame. Sure, it might not be prestige; the HBO Sunday night slot will go to Task from September 8. But in a time when people are heralding superhero movies as ‘so back’, the eight-episode series offers an easy enough detour if you’re into seeing freaky stuff go down – plus superpowers – on a human level. Which is to say Peacemaker is the best there is for trauma-bonding representation.
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