Peacemaker Season 2: Exclusive Look at James Gunn’s Next Step in the DCU After Superman
Exclusive: James Gunn, John Cena, and the cast of Peacemaker season 2 reveal how a Z-list hero came to be at the center of the rebooted DC Universe.

This article appears in the new issue of DEN OF GEEK magazine. You can read all of our magazine stories here.
A lot has changed in the three years since John Cena last donned a silly silver helmet to play the hapless hero Peacemaker. That includes the rise of James Gunn to co-head of DC Studios, from which he’s given the universe a fresh reboot, complete with an all-new take on Superman.
Like any massive shift, the reboot of the DC Universe raises a lot of questions about what is and isn’t canon. But Peacemaker co-stars Steve Agee and Jennifer Holland reprised their roles as agents John Economos and Emilia Harcourt in 2022’s Black Adam and 2023’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods, so those movies count, right?
Not so, James Gunn tells Den of Geek in no uncertain terms. “They’re not canon! I hate it!” he fumes.
Such headaches are to be expected when recreating an entire cinematic universe. What’s less expected, however, is the guy who Gunn’s counting on to sort it out. Gunn doesn’t enlist the help of the Man of Steel, but rather the guy whose series has its second season premiere just weeks after Superman flies into the theaters.
That guy is Peacemaker, a man who loves peace so much, he’s willing to fight for it.
“There are certain things from the old universe that we refer to in Peacemaker season 2, but until then, they’re not canon,” Gunn explains. “Almost everything from season 1 is canon, but season 2 will explain everything that is or is not canon.”
That’s a lot of importance to put on a perennial Z-lister. Created by Joe Gill and Pat Boyette, Christopher Smith a.k.a. Peacemaker made his debut in 1966’s Fightin’ 5 #40, a war comic published by the now defunct Charlton Comics. When DC Comics acquired the Charlton characters in 1983, they gave Peacemaker another shot with a 1988 solo series and a handful of guest appearances before killing him off-panel in 1993. A resurrected and reimagined Chris Smith briefly popped up in 2009 and then disappeared again.
All of that changed in 2021, when James Gunn made Peacemaker a major part of his debut DC movie, The Suicide Squad. Even more surprisingly, Gunn cast wrestling superstar and actor John Cena in the role. Gunn then spun Peacemaker off into his own eight-episode HBO Max series in 2022, despite the fact that The Suicide Squad ended with Chris at death’s door after betraying his team and killing leader Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman).
Now 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 series Creature Commandos and properly kicked off with the much-anticipated Superman.
Improbably, Peacemaker is at the center of these changes with season 2 of his series arriving on HBO Max on Aug. 21, 2025. Peacemaker season 2 puts Chris Smith deep into the new universe, carrying over stories from Superman and even clarifying some details about the cosmic reboot.
How does a low-ranking oddball like Christopher Smith handle the pressure?
A Big Name for a Super-Nobody
By 2021, John Cena had built a storied wrestling career, scored multiple blockbuster film appearances, and even cut a couple of singles. Why would someone of his stature sign up to play a character unknown even to most comic fans?
“I wanted to work in the DC universe,” Cena asserts. “The appeal, really, was working with James Gunn. He has a well-documented ‘no asshole’ policy, so I knew I’d be working with people who are friendly and kind and make me better. That right there is a ‘yes’ for me, regardless of the material.”
At first glance, Cena’s desire to work with the right type of people seems to put him at odds with Christopher Smith, whom the actor describes as “starving to have real human companionship.”
Peacemaker is a jingoistic meathead in The Suicide Squad, a mindless killer who becomes a secondary antagonist when his teammates turn against their handler, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), the duplicitous head of the intelligence agency A.R.G.U.S.
Yet, Gunn got no pushback when he offered Cena the part. “I have found that—uniformly— people dream of being a superhero,” Gunn says. “There’s never been a person that I’ve dealt with who was not extraordinarily excited about their costume.”
It also helps that Gunn tells complex stories about seemingly silly characters. “Whether dealing with Rocket Raccoon or Superman or Peacemaker, I start with the question, ‘What if this character were real? What would bring them to the place where they are today?’” These questions inform everything from personal motivations to costume choices.
“Superman is an alien from outer space who wants kids and people to like him. That’s why he wears the suit,” Gunn observes. “Peacemaker wants to be cool and instill fear in people, but he’s kind of an idiot.“Peacemaker might instill fear because he looks like John Cena, but I don’t think that costume’s instilling fear in anyone.”
Whatever Gunn’s description might suggest, Chris Smith does get some self-awareness throughout Peacemaker. “When he eliminates his friend and mentor Rick Flag in a quest for peace, Chris realizes that his definition of ‘peace’ has been vague and fragmented and flawed,” Cena acknowledges.
Peacemaker’s first season puts Chris on Project Butterfly, a minor assignment that gains importance when the alien butterflies he investigates invade Earth. 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).
From these revelations, Chris Smith seems less like a thug and more like a man suffering from toxic masculinity. Although reluctant to ascribe one specific meaning to his character’s condition—“audiences can take away whatever they want,” he insists—Cena sees these revelations as the character’s main appeal.
“Chris has regrets about what he did to Rick Flag and has a lot of troubles at home. An eagle is his best friend; I think that says a lot,” he chuckles. “Eagly [Peacemaker’s CGI-rendered avian sidekick] is awesome, he’s a superstar, but Chris really has very few human companions. The people who want to be his friend, like Vigilante [Freddie Stroma], he pushes aside or acts like he’s better than.”
And yet, by the end of season 1, Peacemaker has stopped the invasion and faced down his father. More importantly, Christopher Smith has finally made friends, real human friends. And they’re just as messed up as he is.
Shakeup on 11th Street
In the first teaser for Peacemaker season 2, Chris Smith arrives at a secret location for an interview. 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). As seen in Superman, the Justice Gang are the most important superhero team in the universe. And, having just saved the world from alien butterflies, Peacemaker is ready to join their ranks.
But when a tech error allows Smith to hear all of their snide comments, including Lord’s assessment that “this guy sucks,” Chris storms out of the building, his dignity in shambles.
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 comfort from Leota Adebayo, daughter of Amanda Waller.
Throughout the first season of Peacemaker, Adebayo was a reluctant participant in Project Butterfly, pushed into service by her mother and told to betray Chris. 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’re both fighting for the love of their parents, the people who raised them and left them kind of 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 some initial bumps, Chris and his friends finally connected over their mission against the butterflies and their love of hard rock music, calling themselves “the 11th Street Kids,” after the 1984 track by Finnish band Hanoi Rocks.
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.
John Economos is back on familiar ground, working for Waller. “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. But familiarity does not mean life is better for the sad-sack nerd, last seen in Creature Commandos. “I don’t think Economos has ever been comfortable. He’s kind of been beaten down by life. He’s had a lot of jobs that haven’t been super pleasant, dealing with a lot of people who haven’t been super 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 place 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, a lack of personal relationships is the founding ethos of the 11th Street Kids, and it’s that desire for connection that binds the group together. Even Adebayo’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 showed her mother and the team whose side she was really on.”
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 points out. “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 growth the characters have experienced, they can’t escape 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.
“I’m the heavy,” says action veteran Frank Grillo, who reprises his role as Rick Flag Sr. from Creature Commandos and Superman. “Flag sees metahumans as aliens. They’re beings who need to be controlled because it’s easy for them to get out of control. Cena’s character is the hero, regardless of his behavior, but as far as Rick Flag is concerned, Peacemaker’s a bad guy.”
As if cutting a wrestling promo, Grillo starts to laugh. “Peacemaker’s gotta go, he’s gotta feel the wrath.”
Four-Color Heroes in Shades of Gray
So is Peacemaker the hero and Flag the villain? Or is it the other way around? Moral compasses aren’t so clear in Peacemaker, and that’s all part of Gunn’s design.
“In the DCU in general, we’re finding shades of gray in people’s morality,” 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, an incredibly complex and conflicted individual who has done a lot of incredibly bad things. But even he has a sensitivity that’s been bashed down by his father and society.”
It certainly helps that Cena comes to the role with what he calls “a hardened shell,” developed through years 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. That devotion to the part impresses his on-screen nemesis Grillo, who allows, “My hat’s off to John Cena because the way he plays Chris, you can’t help but love him.”
The respect that Cena and Grillo can show one another comes in part from their long history working in action entertainment. That background also prepares the actors for some intense fight sequences for Peacemaker’s second season.
“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 stuff is phenomenal!” he enthuses.
While thrilled with the end result of Harcourt’s massive episode one rumble, she’s quick to point out that it didn’t come to her easily. “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.
“John Economos is a reluctant hero,” laughs Agee. “Pretty much everything he does is against his better judgment. He’s very much like me. Honestly, though, I would be super stoked if I saved some people’s lives by killing a monster gorilla,” referring to Economos’s moment of gory heroism in the first season. “I would be so jazzed.”
Do You Really Wanna Taste It?
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, in a way, more important. “We really had to get the opening dance number dialed in,” reveals Grillo. “James was very serious about it.”
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. For season 2, Peacemaker’s dialing things up with a new song, new moves, and a much bigger cast.
“There are so many more people in the cast. Tim Meadows and Frank Grillo and Sol Rodríguez and David Denman. There are so many people,” says Agee with some awe. “It’s a huge dance number, oh my god.”
Even Brooks, who comes to the show with a theater degree from Juilliard (a credit she puts into perspective 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? That’s what it felt like,” she jokes. “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. “You see someone like Tim Meadows really wanting to get it right, and it’s a really special experience.”
“The first time I saw the dance number, I was smiling ear to ear,” Agee concludes. “People are going to love it.”
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 is canon before Creature Commandos, but you can think of those other things as vague memories of things that happened, going back even to 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’re building a world as large as these ones are, whether it’s Game of Thrones, Star Wars, DC or Marvel. It’s going to be complicated, you know?”
That’s certainly true of the DC Universe, which has already been rebooted in the world of comics multiple times since 1985. As a longtime comic book fan himself, Gunn can roll with the changes.
“I’m a balanced canon guy,” he observes. “On the one hand, people take it a little too far. Obviously, these are fictional stories, so we don’t have to pretend that they’re reality. 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 complications are worth it, especially for someone like Gunn, who gets to fill the universe with oddballs from the comics, even if he can’t get them all on the screen yet. “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 fact, we see some imps in season 2 of Peacemaker.”
Clearly, Gunn isn’t done with the weirdos of the DC Universe, and that’s good news for Chris Smith. In fact, to hear Cena tell it, nothing can hold back Peacemaker, not even Gunn’s own rules.
“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 said, because when you’re talking about guys like Christopher Smith, “odd” is definitely the word.
Peacemaker season 2 premieres Thursday, August 21, 2025 on HBO Max.