DC mastermind James Gunn is having a hell of a summer. After delivering an astounding Superman film and taking over San Diego Comic-Con, the co-chair of DC Studios is going to “keep on keeping on” as the second season of Peacemaker debuts on HBO Max this week!

While we are going to have a lot more Peacemaker surprises for you this week leading up to the season premiere on August 21, we wanted to share all the latest updates from Gunn himself after a recent roundtable discussion we attended earlier this month.

Gunn has always been the most candid fellow, especially when addressing news and rumors about the DCU. Often he takes to Twitter himself to shoot down false gossip, but he’s always been the most open and transparent with press about the happenings going on at DC Studios, from the first announcements to a casual status update on projects. So once more, it was a treat to sit down with the busiest man at DC to discuss the third official entry in the DCU, Peacemaker Season 2.

As big fans of Peacemaker, it was an honor to be surrounded by other members of the press to discuss the full details of what to expect for the coming season.

At the Hall H panel during San Diego Comic-Con, Gunn stated himself to be a fan of characters growing and changing from season to season. As such, he was asked how the idea of parallel dimensions would fit into the essence of character growth among the ensemble this season. He answered, “I think you see it very clearly with Christopher Smith. Last season, he was full of bluster. He was very much trying to be better than everyone else all the time, larger than life. And he’s been humbled. And I think in the last season, he, you know, discovered these demons that he’s dealing with in life. He sort of uncovered the demons in himself. And this season, it’s about him dealing with those demons. And one of the ways those memories and those demons manifest themselves is through this singular alternate dimension that seems much better than the life he grew up with.”

It’s these personal qualities about his characters and Gunn’s emphasis on humanity that really allow us to connect with his characters, regardless of whether they’re Kryptonian, human, or genetically-enhanced raccoons. He was asked about how he balances the human side of superheroes with the vigilante personas:

“I think the heroics and the vigilantism, those are things they do. But then there’s also the people, who they are. And what interests me is both of those things. It interests me to know who Superman is as a person and what Superman does that’s extraordinary to see. But everyone’s extraordinary in their own ways. And I think that we can use the stories of superheroes to allow us to see ourselves better. Not to be something as they’ve often been in the past, as something larger than life that is beyond us. That is basically telling us, ‘Hey, we’re not really worthwhile compared to these powerful gods.’ That isn’t what superheroes are to me. They bring out aspects of ourselves: of the heroes in ourselves, of the kindness in ourselves, of the cruelty in ourselves, of the bullies. When I wrote Season 1 of Peacemaker, I think back to the times I was a bullied as a kid, you know. It’s like these are all just very human characters, and that’s what’s most important.”

Peacemaker Season 2 is going to be a lot more fantastical as part of the DCU. And given how comic book-inspired Superman was, it’s not a surprise. Though it’s not an incredible stretch to set the adventures of Christopher Smith in the DCU, Gunn was able to expand more on the fantastical elements from Season 1 to tie Peacemaker firmly into this universe.

For instance, in Season 1, things like his quantum unfolding chamber had yet to be explored. As such, when asked about the expansion of the mythology behind that chamber and other elements from the show, Gunn was asked if he already had the mythology behind these elements ready and when, in general, they came to be.

“I don’t remember for sure, but I think it was just a place where he could keep his helmets. It wasn’t gonna be as important as it became when I first wrote it. No, it’s often like people are like, ‘the old Peacemaker was in the DCEU, and the new Peacemaker…’ I’m like, was he really in the DCEU? I mean, there’s Bat-Mite, there’s all these other things that were happening. There’s Green Arrow, all these things that weren’t… I think the first Peacemaker was stuck in between, you know, dimensions, and nothing was quite present. So this is just trying to bring him into our world.”

Naturally, the dawn of Krypto inspired questions about the super pets within the DCU. When asked if Krypto and Eagly would get along, Gunn said, “Probably not. I mean… Krypto might try to play or something, but I don’t think Eagly would be too fond of Krypto whatsoever. I wouldn’t let Eagly around my dog, for sure… I think really we see Eagly doesn’t really like anyone except for Chris.”

Gunn’s characters always have a personal element to them that he infuses into the stories, which in turn make his stories richer. When asked which DC character he connected with in the same way he connected with Rocket Raccoon for Marvel, Gunn replied, “Well, I certainly connect to Peacemaker, and I certainly connect to Harcourt in certain ways. I’m not as good as Superman. But nothing quite feels as autobiographical as Rocket did, you know? But in a way, the Peacemaker story is in some ways more personal, and I really do relate to Chris. You know, I relate to the good and the bad sides of him.”

In exploring his love for comic books, the one thing Gunn gets is that, despite all being connected, some of the comic books DC publishes are more mature than others, while many others cater to a wider age range. This is an approach he has been transparent about wanting to apply to his cinematic universe as well. As such, Peacemaker will definitely continue to be an adults-only property, even though movies like Superman tend to be more family friendly. When asked about the dichotomy between the two types existing in the single DCU, Gunn stated, “I think it’s just important, you know… I think it’s exciting to be able to tell stories for different groups of people. So, you know, Superman is for everyone. Peacemaker is for an adult audience, like that’s who it’s created for. Supergirl, everyone. We have the Krypto shorts, which are for children. You know, we have Clayface, which is an R-rated horror film. So I like the idea of really telling different types of stories — truly different types of stories — within this singular universe.”

What’s canon has always been a point of confusion for many. However, we know for sure Creature Commandos, Superman, and now Peacemaker Season 2 are all canon within the DCU. Because of this, changes to previous projects like The Suicide Squad or Peacemaker Season 1 had to be considered. When asked about whether or not he would go back to make actual edits to legacy projects to suit the new vision of the DCU, Gunn stated, “I wish I could do that. I wish I could ‘Lucas’ the shit out of this, but I can’t, because it’s too expensive, and I think we’d rather spend the money on a few more Supergirl VFX shots.”

He continued saying, “I think that, you know, was there ever a thought of it? Not really. I mean, could I make it so that Peacemaker is the DCEU Peacemaker, even though he’s not really that Peacemaker. And he walks through that portal, and that’s where the DCU Peacemaker is… But the thing that, you know, people are like, how are [mainstream audiences] going to understand it? Like, no, the answer is, [mainstream audiences] don’t give a shit. [They] don’t care about all this canon stuff so intimately. They’re like, ‘Oh, cool, Peacemaker and Superman team up,’ you know? ‘Oh, cool. It’s Aliens and Predator together.’ Like, it doesn’t matter if it’s not completely consistent in the past. So I thought the simple way was really the best. Which is just saying, ‘Yeah, this world is a little different.’ We know there’s universes, and this is the universe in which everything was exactly the same as Season 1, except for the Justice League and Bat-Mite.”

If nothing else, however, Peacemaker is a story of self discovery. As silly as the show may seem, it’s always been deeper than most would think, and that’s because Gunn does take inspiration from sources outside of comics. When asked about those sources, Gunn mentioned, “The biggest influence was probably Philip Roth’s The Counterlife… what wasn’t interesting to me doing a multiverse [story] — which I love, like Deadpool and Wolverine, where there’s a thousand different Deadpools and it’s crazy and it’s nuts — this is about one emotional journey with a world that seems slightly better than ours, and how that helps Christopher Smith to learn about himself. And so that’s the story that interested me; the fun of that singular universe. Of the small differences, not the big differences. That was what was fun to me. Another novel that I really liked a lot growing up was the novel Replay, which is about a guy who lives different versions of his life over and over again. I think that was a big influence on this season. What happens when your choices are just a little bit different, you know? Those were bigger influences than comic books. So whereas you might say All-Star Superman was the biggest influence on Superman, the biggest influence on this were those novels.”

The hilarious thing about Peacemaker, and Gunn as a creator, is that he can pull from high art like the works of Philip Roth and Ken Grimwood, but just as easily swerve into vulgarity. In this tradition, Peacemaker Season 2 features a wild orgy sequence in its first episode. When asked about the scene, Gunn had this to say.

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” Gunn said, laughing hard. “And then Rainn Wilson interviewed me for Interview magazine the other day, and he was like, ‘I have one question for you.’ He’s like, ‘How in the world did HBO let you do this orgy scene?’ And I’m like, ‘What, I don’t know. HBO always has nudity. What’s the big deal?’ So I didn’t think it was a big deal. It wasn’t really challenging, because, you know, people poo-poo intimacy coordinators, but I find them to be the most wonderful addition to this industry in the past 20 years, by far. And having a really good intimacy coordinator on set who was able to deal with people in a respectful way and allow us to shoot it in the most balls-out (no pun intended) way was really helpful. And it made it an interesting couple days on set. But those performers were all awesome, and I really appreciate their willingness to do that. And I think it works well for Christopher Smith’s journey. So it all comes from an emotional place.”

Gunn went on to discuss how personal the season was for him. “I think it’s personal for me. Just you know, in that I am a person that thinks back to, you know, ‘what if I did this thing a little bit differently, or what if I did that thing a little bit differently. What if I kept that person in my life? What if I wasn’t so mean to this person in the past? How would would my life be different?’ You know, how much do the small choices we make in our lives affect us in really big ways? And I think that is really the difference. That’s why this isn’t what has, you know, come to be considered a ‘multiverse story,’ and people will say it’s a ‘multiverse story,’ but it’s really much more contemplative than what we’ve come to see from a multiverse story… It’s a much more literary story than that. And it is about the emotional journey of this person who’s really lost everything in his life that has been important to him, from his brother to any sort of real relationship with his father that he never had. And now he’s presented with those things in a way that absolutely is going to be compelling, and that we cannot blame Christopher Smith for his actions throughout the season.”

If there is one thing that went absolutely viral last season, it was the opening credits sequence. I still cannot bring myself to fast forward through it when I rewatch episodes of Season 1. Season 2 promises to bring a new, hopefully equally classic dance sequence, officially set to Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord.” The song is perhaps a perfect representation of the show’s existential themes about what it feels like to be dissatisfied with life, but how we must persist in the face of unhappiness. Heavy stuff, despite the goofiness of the dance moves that will likely be coming.

When asked about how the sequence was executed and whether alternate songs were considered, Gunn stated, “I don’t know if there were any other tracks that were close. There were a couple of other tracks that I considered. There was another Foxy song I considered. But at the end of the day, I thought ‘Oh Lord,’ fit the season the best, in the same way that ‘Do You Want to Taste It’ fit the first season… And the biggest challenge for me, really, was that we have many more bad dancers this season. And so, you know, shout out to Frank Grillo and Tim Meadows and Michael Rooker. Where Robert Patrick was a singular bad dancer last season, now there’s many… Focus on Rooker and you’ll see his dancing abilities.”

I then got to ask if there were any retcons Gunn had to do to fit The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker Season 1 into the DCU that he felt disappointed about having to change to fit the new universe.

Gunn responded, “I mean, just the thing that we actually physically retconned, which is the Justice League. I mean, to me, that was one of the things that was so fun for me about Season 1. I mean, there were two things when I put Season 1 out on HBO Max that I was so excited for people to see. One was the dance sequence. They didn’t know it was coming until it showed up in Season 1 after the cold open in episode one. And then the ending with the Justice League. I just knew that people would flip out over that, you know. And here’s this little punk Peacemaker telling the Justice League to piss off. And I thought that was so fun and crazy and such a big idea.”

While we have seen Peacemaker in a full length feature before (The Suicide Squad), Gunn was asked if we’d see a solo feature for the famed antihero and dancer. “I actually know the answer to that question, and I am not at liberty to say under penalty of ‘the Safran punishment,’ which is a loss of my knuckle. Every time I give away something, Peter Safran will take away another joint of my finger,” Gunn joked.

All of the journalists on the call certainly wanted to make sure Gunn kept all of his limbs, so at that point we were able to wrap the conference.

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Season 2 of Peacemaker officially kicks off on HBO Max, this Thursday, August 21! To celebrate, we will have more Peacemaker heading your way this week, including interviews with cast members David Denman, Sol Rodriguez, Steve Agee, Frank Grillo, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma, and Danielle Brooks.

Stay tuned to The Nerds of Color this week for all of this and more!