Peacemaker: DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn teases fans with Season 2; says it's "much more about the character"

One of the acclaimed things in the DC slate in the past few years is Peacemaker, so it wasn't a surprise when it was renewed officially in February 2022. It has been three years since the first season concluded and a lot has changed in the DC Universe. Initially believed to be a part of the now-defunct DCEU, the series has been retconned as a part of Peter Safran and James Gunn's DCU.

The character of Peacemaker/Christopher Smith was introduced in 2021's James Gunn directorial The Suicide Squad. From that movie, Smith spun off into a Max (then HBO Max) series with a three-episode premiere on January 13, 2022. The eight-episode first season follows Christopher and his fellow A.R.G.U.S. team members' attempts to thwart an alien invasion.

Now, finally, after three years, we have some news regarding the upcoming second season that's expected to begin streaming in August of this year. James Gunn and Safran recently held a press event at Warner Bros. in which the two offered updates on the upcoming DCU movies and shows. Those updates also included the second season of John Cena's Peacemaker.

One of the promising updates regarding the series was Gunn's comment about the second season focusing more on the characters. He said so while discussing the new intro for season 2 and how it is linked to this season's overall theme. He said this to the members of the press:

"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.”

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What were the Peacemaker updates offered by the DC Studios heads?

As stated earlier, Peter Safran and James Gunn gave members of the press new information about several DCU projects like The Authority, Waller, and The Brave and the Bold. But one of the exciting updates was that of Peacemaker Season 2. He revealed that the second season featuring John Cene's Christopher Smith is almost done.

Here is James Gunn's exact quote to ComicBook.com's Marco Vito Oddo:

“Peacemaker is all done. I am deep in editing with that at the same time I’m doing Superman.”

Gunn was all praise for the show's star John Cena, and he said this:

“I think he surprised people a lot in the first season with what he was able to do performance-wise. And the guy grew exponentially in season two. And he’s really incredible, as is the whole cast.”

The studio heads also revealed the antagonist of Peacemaker Season 2, Rick Flag Sr., played by Frank Grillo. This is interesting because Flag Sr. is introduced as a reasonable man who is one of the Creature Commandos' heroes. After that, Flag is going to appear in Superman on the big screen. Either, the events of the movie will set him up on a darker path.

Even if the movie does not set Rick Flag Sr. on a dark path, it needs to be noted that he has unfinished business with Christopher Smith. Flag Sr. is still mourning the death of Rick Flag Jr., who was killed by Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad, something even Christopher Smith regrets. Gunn had this to say about Flag Sr.'s antagonistic turn:

"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."

The press event attendees were also informed that season 2 will have a new opening song instead of Wig Wam's "Do You Wanna Taste It". Gunn said that they were using a new song not to just surprise the viewers but also to tie into the second season, which according to him is more character-focused. He said:

“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.”

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August 2025 can't come soon enough! If you haven't watched Peacemaker Season 1, stream all eight episodes on Max.