Everything Changing in Peacemaker Season 2—Except His Love for Violence

On Saturday, HBO Max made a major splash at San Diego Comic-Con by releasing the first full-length trailer for the upcoming second season of Peacemaker, the Emmy-nominated spinoff from DC series hit-maker James Gunn. Shot during season 1 of The Suicide Squad and with a voiceover by Cena himself, the trailer was Peacemaker’s big debut at Comic-Con, and it lived up to the hype.

As in the season 1 trailer, the new video is both a tease of the expanded universe Gunn’s team has established for its DC superhero properties and an exploration of its central hero, played by Cena, and his relationships with teammates, enemies, and, as we see later in the trailer, with a new multiversal teammate he befriends, only to eventually betray.

In 2023, Peacemaker started out strong with a spectacular first season. Where Gunn’s The Suicide Squad film deviated from Gregor McKay’s original comic, Peacemaker was a chance for the director to more fully explore this character. While he is given substantial screen time in James Gunn’s other DC film and series, Peacemaker’s origin, mission, and even ethos are unique.

This being said, season 1 followed the aftermath of The Suicide Squad’s mission to Corto Maltese as well as the infamous massacre at Black Mask’s island headquarters. Season 2 jumps five months later, where Smith barely survived a shot to the head, and was later recruited into another clandestine government operation, this time under the codename “Project Butterfly.” With the team still reeling from their actions and moral ambivalence of the Corto Maltese mission, they set out, with an assembled crew, including A.R.G.U.S. Agent John Economos (Steve Agee), Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), and a recruit, Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), to stop an alien threat from taking over the world. The project itself, led by Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji), turned out to be something more than meets the eye, as the team tasked with neutralizing it turned out to be dealing with an alien species—butterflies that could only be killed by entering their human hosts—and this group of unlikely heroes set out to stop them.

If the first season was about getting in, surviving, and getting out, by the end of it, the group got a lot more than they bargained for. They won, but it was a Pyrrhic victory, and there were more consequences, both physical and emotional, than they expected. A debriefing at the end of season 1, by a General who, in season 1, was just a voice on the phone—and revealed as Duke Lacrosse this season (Daniel Harraway)—concluded that Murn’s team’s existence must remain a secret, for all of their sakes. Despite this, their story did not end quietly or inconspicuously, as Gunn and crew took full advantage of the one-two punch of two-part season finales, where the finality of events gets undercut, here literally, by the end of part two and an encore to come.

Jumping into season 2, Peacemaker is in a much different DCU now than it was in the first season, as while the former of course was part of the now-defunct DCEU, Gunn revealed at SDCC that season 2 will be part of the rebranded DCU, where his standalone series Gotham City Guardians and “Gods and Monsters” slate of DC projects are also based. However, Gunn has confirmed that previous events are canon, minus a few exceptions (meaning no real cameos from the Justice League in this season, presumably).

Season 1 regulars, including Cena, Brooks, Holland, Agee, and Freddie Stroma as the crowd-favorite, eccentric Vigilante, are all returning this season, as is Nhut Le as Judomaster, and Eagly, Peacemaker’s trusty bald eagle co-pilot. Gunn also confirmed the return of Robert Patrick as Peacemaker’s deceased father, Auggie Smith, whose shadow also looms large this season. New to the season 2 cast is Frank Grillo as Rick Flagg Sr., father to the late Rick Flagg, the young A.R.G.U.S. agent that Peacemaker kills in The Suicide Squad. Grillo’s character is the head of A.R.G.U.S. now and is out for blood. He will be joined by Tim Meadows as agent Langston Fleury, Sol Rodriguez as Sasha Bordeaux, and, of course, Michael Rooker as Red St. Wild, Eagly’s “nemesis.”

The official synopsis has not changed all that much: as in the first season, Chris Smith is still coming to terms with the emotional baggage from his past, while also experiencing a desire to be better, do better, and, in his mind, be a better person. The man may still want peace, but he is also motivated to be seen as a hero, rather than someone who only follows orders.

The season 2 teaser, released in May, was another tease at just how wild the new season will be. Set to music from Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord,” it includes footage of Chris failing at his attempt to join the Justice League, with Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders (Isabela Merced), and Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn) all reprising their roles from Gunn’s Superman. Naturally, his meeting with them does not go well, mostly because he pitches himself so awkwardly.

The teaser also teases character updates from the first season. Adebayo, it turns out, is now “living in the worst level of Grand Theft Auto,” as Economos reports. Harcourt is reported as having a “particularly severe form of toxic masculinity,” while Vigilante has sit appears, endsince ed up in food service.

The trailer’s biggest surprise, however, was its reveal of a dimensional portal. Following a parallel Chris Smith from another dimension, he is this world’s equivalent of a hero. Frustrated with his position in his own life and with his romantic prospects, the alternate Chris considers his options of staying in this dimension. But of course, his past is not done with him yet. Harcourt delivers the line, “No matter how green the grass is over there, you belong here. With us.”

Gunn, who also spoke during the Hall H SDCC panel, said that Season 2 is much more about character development, and that while Cena’s character may have made changes, so too will the characters around him. “I watch TV shows where the characters don’t just return every season and they’re the same characters,” Gunn explained. “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 trying to deal with them, and the world is not accepting him the way he is. They aren’t accepting him as a hero.”

Peacemaker Season 2 premieres August 21, 2025, on HBO Max.