"One of his first babies in the DCU": Danielle Brooks explains how Peacemaker has evolved from its DCEU roots

DCU actress Danielle Brooks recently sat down for an interview with ScreenRant's Ash Crossan on March 21, 2025, for the promotion of the upcoming A Minecraft Movie. While that interview was mostly about the movie, their conversation did touch upon the second season of Peacemaker, which is set to begin streaming somewhere in August 2025.

Crossan asked Brooks about the impact of James Gunn's new role as the Co-CEO of DC Studios on the Peacemaker Series. To this question, the actress spoke about the change between seasons 1 and 2 and compared it to her own Orange Is the New Black. Other than that, she had this to say about the second season of Peacemaker:

"You know, when we first did Season 1 of Peacemaker, it was during the pandemic, so we didn’t even do press for it. We didn’t have a premiere. The fans took to it, and they loved it. And now, James is taking over the DC Universe, so I don’t know what’s going to happen with Season 2. I do know that it’s done so well, and I’m excited for the response. I’m excited for the fans to watch it and see it. And I do feel like there’s more… It’s almost like when we were doing Orange Is the New Black on Netflix. We were the first kids to really make Netflix, and I kind of feel that same wave with James Gunn taking over. Peacemaker feels like that cool kid -- one of his first babies in the DCU. So I’m excited to see how that expands and grows. But I can’t wait to see Superman."

---

Understanding DCU actress' comments:

The eight-episode Peacemaker Season 1, which is the spin-off of the James Gunn-directed The Suicide Squad (2021), streamed on Max between January and February 2022. It was a surprise popular and critical hit that had fans demanding more. However, it must be noted that the first season did not have a huge marketing push or premiere because of the pandemic.

Despite that, the first season managed to be a huge streaming hit when it was released. Thus, Peacemaker Season 2 has a bigger opportunity as lockdowns and premieres are back in the public consciousness. Furthermore, the second season is not held back by the shackles of a divisive universe like the first season was.

While The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker Season 1 were initially a part of the DCEU, which began back in 2013's Man of Steel, they did not play that much into the universe established by Zack Snyder, except for the Justice League cameo in the Peacemaker Season 1 finale.

But, as James Gunn was hired as the co-CEO of the newly formed DC Studios, he retconned The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker Season 1 as a part of the DCU, which is a new universe. Therefore, season 2 will be a part of the new DC Universe (DCU), which began with Creature Commandos.

---

What do we know about the upcoming DCU series Peacemaker Season 2?

Not much is known about the upcoming Peacemaker Season 2 except for its release window being somewhere in August 2025 and the antagonist. We do know that John Cena's Christopher Smith/Peacemaker will go up against Frank Grillo's Rick Flag Sr. James Gunn revealed so during the February 2025 press event by stating:

"You take the character of Rick Flag [Sr.], who starts out in Creature Commandos as one character, goes to Superman, continues to evolve and change, and then he starts out as a protagonist of one show and ends up as basically the antagonist of Season 2."

While some may find this jarring given Flag Sr. is one of the good guys in Creature Commandos, it is important to remember that the events of 2021's The Suicide Squad are still canon to the DCU, meaning Peacemaker is the man who murdered Joel Kinnaman's Rick Flag Jr. So, it is understandable that Flag Sr. is not willing to let it go. Other than the antagonist, Gunn also had another tease for Peacemaker Season 2.

In the same press event, Gunn teased a new opening song for the second season instead of "Do Ya Wanna Taste It." When Collider’s Steve Weintraub asked Gunn when fans can expect to first hear the intro song for the DCU series, the latter replied:

“I don't know about when they're going to see it. I was talking about the other day because one, it was really fun in the first, one of the things is we totally kept that from the public until the first episode aired and it flipped people out, which was the most fun about it. Now people know it's coming, so it's not as exciting in that respect, but, but I went through a lot of permutations of potential songs, that I was gonna have it open to, you know, including reusing, doing a different dancing to the Do You Wanna Taste It, but then we ended up with something else that I think works, and I think it's the second season is much more about the characters and the interconnectivity between the characters and their personal lives and it's more about Chris Smith than it is about Peacemaker and so I think that the song reflects that, overarching theme.”

---

Are you excited about the new DCU franchise? If so, which project are you looking forward to?