Superman flew into theaters this summer, officially kicking off the new DC Universe under James Gunn and Peter Safran. It garnered much acclaim, and is still soaring high at the box office, becoming the highest grossing solo Superman film of all time domestically, and the most successful superhero film of the year. So the question for DC Studios is, of course, what’s next? Why the return of John Cena’s outlandish Peacemaker of course!
While San Diego Comic-Con this year was nothing short of a big success, with amazing panels for TRON: Ares, Predator: Badlands, and more, it was surprisingly lacking in major panels for Marvel Studios and DC Studios upcoming film slates. However, just because there wasn’t a large scale look into the future of DC Studios, doesn’t mean that the crew that brought you Superman wasn’t going to come to SDCC for a modest victory lap. That’s precisely what Gunn and crew did, specifically and strictly for the next installment in DC Studios’ Gods and Monsters Chapter, Season 2 of Peacemaker. For not only did Gunn and the geniuses at HBO Max bring the highly anticipated next season of the hit series to Hall H, they took over Downtown San Diego with an incredible offsite called “Peacefest 2025.” Here’s a breakdown of what we saw.
Hall H
Naturally when it comes to Hall H, DC Studios is going to rule. And rule they did, with their Peacemaker Season 2 panel. The full crew, including new cast members from Season 2 took to the stage to discuss the new season. This included Tim Meadows, Sol Rodriguez, Frank Grillo, Steve Agee, Freddie Stroma, Jennifer Holland, and of course Gunn and Cena! Oscar-nominee Danielle Brooks, who was incredible as Adebayo in the first season, was unfortunately not able to attend as she got sick prior to the panel. That said, Cena, of course, showed up in his full Peacemaker costume; always a delight to see, especially at Comic-Con!
The panel kicked off with the premiere of the new season’s trailer, which was later released online, not long after, thankfully! Take a look at that here:
Now Peacemaker, on the surface, always seemed like a goofy show about wannabe superheroes that were essentially the losers of DC, complete with silly sophomoric humor and ridiculousness. And it so delightfully is! However, if you recall, this show is a lot more than that! Peacemaker Season 1 was a complete takedown of racism in White America. Peacemaker may have started his journey in The Suicide Squad seemingly dispatching POCs without any remorse, but the whole first season of his series revealed how untrue that was. The character acknowledged how terrible he was as a human being, molded by the trauma of being raised by an abusive, racist KKK member of a father, and worked hard by the end to try and do better to correct the mistakes of the past, and the sins of himself and his father. It was also a really astute and fair observation of anti-Science cult mentality, but also the wrongness behind extreme solutions to resolving mankind’s problems. In short it was a lot deeper and much more aware of our world than many give it credit for.
This season, however, appears to be about several new themes, including the idea of dealing with new demons brought about from trauma (a direct result of Peacmaker’s discoveries about his life from the previous season), but also the idea of acceptance of your life as it is, even if imperfect. “One of the things I wanted to make sure we did,” Gunn began, “was that — I really like TV shows where the characters don’t just return every season as the same exact characters. I want to see growth, I want to see change, and sometimes regression. Peacemaker is a different guy this year. He’s dealing with the demons he uncovered from the first season. And the world is not accepting him the way he is. The world is not accepting him as a hero. He’s in love with Emilia Harcourt and she’s not accepting him. So he’s not getting anything he wants, and he discovers a parallel dimension through the quantum unfolding chamber. And he thinks it’s the perfect universe. And that’s the beginning of the story, and it goes from there.”
Indeed. That’s one of the hardest things about adulthood, is the realization that life will not always go the way you think it will, despite your hard work and effort. This dissatisfaction in life could drive everyone to believe the grass will always be greener on the other side, which leads to harder life lessons about whether or not that’s actually true. That’s what makes these stories about Peacemaker so easy to identify with. “I applaud James,” star Cena added. “I’ve said this before and I’ll say this again, I think your ability to tell stories through super circumstances, but make material we can all relate to is important, because when we watch these larger than life characters go through their journey, that’s something we want to root for. But it’s something we get more enthusiastic about when it’s a journey we can relate to. I don’t ever want to tell the audience how to feel, but when I watch the trailer, what I see is someone who is going through a bit of a rough patch in life and thinks the grass might be greener on the other side. And that’s a journey a lot of us can relate to. So I think people will enjoy that lane of the season, because it hits home. We’ve all thought the grass might be greener on the other side. So I think Peacemaker, Chris Smith, is just going through a patch in his life where nothing is going right and he thinks [things are better] elsewhere.”
The theme extends to all the 11th Street Kids, apparently, as we found out, Harcourt is in a very similar situation. The season, which takes place a month after the events of Superman, sees Amanda Waller’s former ARGUS team officially decommissioned due to Adebayo’s expose of Waller’s involvement in Project Butterfly from Season 1, and Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr. taking over operations of ARGUS. This includes Harcourt, who is taking the layoff pretty poorly. In an extended clip they showed us during the panel, Harcourt is in a bar, getting accosted by a bunch of no-class jerks. Rather than telling them off and leaving things at that, Harcourt picks a brutal fight with them, beating the snot out of each of them badly and bloody until she, herself, is mowed down unconscious. It’s a very self destructive turn for the character, but one that allows her to unleash her anger and frustrations out on sleaze bags in a bar.
The scene, which featured some incredible action, was a particular challenge for Holland, who went on to describe the process of training and executing it. “I don’t know what to say other than that, when I finished filming that, the most rewarding experience for me was that the entire group of stuntmen and women that I worked with for that sequence, came up and shook my hand, and said ‘you are the best actress we’ve ever worked with, and we’re so proud to be [part of this],'” she stated. “I was just like ‘You guys, I feel like I’m being welcomed into part of a group!’ It was really amazing!”
Perhaps two of the characters that don’t particularly change as much as Harcourt and Peacemaker are Vigilante and Economos, played by Stroma and Agee respectively. Since the events of Project Butterfly, Vigilante has taken a liking to Economos (much to his distaste), but the two are certainly bound to bring more laughs this season.
“Character-wise [he doesn’t change],” Stroma stated. “He was pretty similar [to the first season]. It’s just a character I love playing and I got to continue doing that.”
On continuing to pop up as Economos throughout the DCU, Agee stated, “It’s amazing. I get to pay my rent for a few more months. I can’t thank James enough for this gig!” Given the character is now working under Rick Flag Sr. his loyalties are torn between ARGUS and the 11th Street Kids. “He’s a little torn. I’m working for this monster here,” he said gesturing to Grillo to his left. “For a lot of this season. We all know his relationship with Peacemaker at this point. So I’m walking a very thin line this season.”
It was time for Grillo to talk about the so-called “monster” behind Rick Flag Sr. We were already fans of his from Creature Commandos and of course, Superman. But in Peacemaker Season 2, he’s absolutely going to be the primary antagonist, given Peacemaker killed his son, Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) in The Suicide Squad. When asked about his character, Grillo stated, “When James [and I] spoke early on, there was this evolution of Flag, but consistently driven by the same thing. Revenge for his dead son…He’s driven by this thing, but he’s now in a position to get his hands on Peacemaker.”
Joining the cast this year is actually another surprising DC character, rooted deeply in the Batman comics: Sasha Bordeaux. The character, first introduced in Detective Comics# 751 in 2000, became a protegee to Batman, eventually falling in love with him. However, she ends up getting recruited to Checkmate under Maxwell Lord, and becomes a key player in taking Lord down during the Infinite Crisis storyline, eventually becoming a cyborg once she gets partially converted by one of Brother Eye’s OMACs.
For the DCU version of Bordaux, Gunn cast Rodriguez, and I doubt the show will go into the “Batman” of it all, or the “cyborg” aspects (at least for now). Rodriguez had this to say about the role. “It’s such an honor to be part of this show, and play Sasha,” she began. “I did all the research I could do online, and talked to James. I actually drafted a very, very long paragraph to send to James once before starting filming. It was so long that you could scroll several times down. And I was about to hit send, and I was like, ‘He’s going to fire me if I send this to him. He’s too busy right now to deal with this.’ So I did my thing, and I was waiting for him to let me know if I was on the right track. I think I was… It was a lot of questions, it was really long. But it’s an honor. She’s such a badass. And this cast? They’re icons!”
SNL alumnus, Meadows also joined the cast. Playing the original character of Langston Fleury, a very politically incorrect ARGUS agent, Meadows spoke to the process of getting drawn into the role and into the show. “I was very excited. My manager said James wanted to have a FaceTime meeting. And we did that, and I was really nervous about it. I didn’t want to fanboy out too hard online and start sweating. He just explained to me the character, and the arc of this guy, and I just was like ‘I’ll do it! Whatever you want me to do, I don’t care.’ “
“We were desperate,” Gunn added. “Because we auditioned probably 300 guys for Langston Fleury. It was like, maybe the funniest character in the script. And none of them fit the character. And I’d known Tim a little bit for a long time, and thought ‘Meadows might be good.’ But it was sort of a risk hiring you, because we had auditioned so many people. And he just came in Day One, because the role was written for you! You were perfect!”
As Brooks was unfortunately unable to make it, Gunn was able to at least go into her character, Adebayo, a small amount. Much like Harcourt, she is also challenged with the dissatisfaction of her current station in life. However, unlike Harcourt and Peacemaker, she acts as a foil to the two, approaching life’s disappointment with optimism. “She’s so optimistic. Despite everything she keeps believing,” Gunn started. “But she’s also like Harcourt. She can’t work in the intelligence agencies in the United States. She learned at the end of the first season, she wants to be a spy or mercenary. And so she tries to start up her own mercenary business. And it’s going absolutely nowhere in the beginning of the season. But it doesn’t bring her down. She just keeps on believing.”
This is essentially what I think is beautiful about Peacemaker. As Cena stated in his comments, the more relatable a story and characters are to its audience, the more engaging both are. And that’s where Peacemaker‘s strengths as a show lie: it is really good at showcasing some of the more common trials and tribulations that exist in being human, especially in a world populated by gods and monsters. Challenges will come, dissatisfaction will happen, but as the season’s new theme song states, we all got to “keep on keeping,” just like Adebayo.
I will say, I’ll be the first to admit, on a personal level, I had hoped the Hall H presentation would extend beyond Peacemaker, and Gunn would treat us to footage from Lanterns or Supergirl. Unfortunately for fans looking for a tease of what’s to come in the DCU, that wasn’t the case. However, that was perfectly okay, because what they showed us for Peacemaker ultimately truly got us hyped for the next season, and the next immediate installment of the DCU. Besides how could anyone be mad, when, in addition to the Hall H panel, Gunn and friends brought a really insanely amazing offsite to SDCC as well?
Peacefest 2025
For “Peacefest,” as they did with previous offsites, HBO Max rented out an immersive three-story venue to allow folks to experience a once-in-a-lifetime event to commemorate everyone’s favorite flawed peace-loving misfit, and his team the 11th Street Kids. The first floor served as a venue for mini-concerts throughout the day (and a major exclusive VIP-only event on Saturday evening), the second floor was a bar and game station, where folks could put their Mortal Kombat skills to the test as Peacemaker, and the third floor was home to meet the one-and-only Eagly (an actual eagle that we didn’t get a chance to see for ourselves, unfortunately).
You have to admire how much HBO goes all-out for their shows at Comic-Con, from the Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon immersive activations and photo ops with the Iron Thrones, to the Westworld white hat/black hat experience that placed congoers in the actual gamified IRL experience of the fictional theme park, and last year’s activation for The Penguin which allowed people to work for Oz Cobb, enabling them to search for secret rooms, and work their way up the Gotham underbelly. In contrast to all that, “Peacefest” was incredibly chill, and that’s not a bad thing. Folks didn’t have to go around playing a role in the DCU to enjoy, they could just vibe, imbibe, and enjoy some sweet tunes! For me, it was an absolute highlight for the Con, and one of the best experiences of this year’s SDCC.
The time, effort, and cost put into an initiative like this is simply astonishing. Every show they put on featured a new band, and every band worked their butts off to get the audiences hyped, putting in so much energy and talent into their performances. Sessions for the offsite even had to have delays in between just so the bands they hired could rest. That’s how you know you were getting the best in live entertainment at the convention. Gunn, himself, even revealed the new song for Season 2!
You can check out the full experience here:
Overall the experience was absolutely mental, and I am floored by the amount of effort and showmanship everyone put into this incredible experience. I don’t know if anyone will be able to top the experience next year. But knowing the folks at HBO and DC Studios, odds are, they’ll be asking us to hold their beer this time next year too!
Peacemaker Season 2 officially debuts on HBO Max August 21!
Definitely stay tuned to The Nerds of Color for more soon!
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