Grit, Growth, and Guns: Peacemaker S2 Trailer Unpacked

Season 2 of Peacemaker, the Emmy-nominated DC spinoff series from James Gunn, received a new high-octane trailer at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend. The trailer provides the first extended look at what to expect from John Cena’s Peacemaker in the coming season, which is set to include new allies and enemies, bigger setpieces, weirder sci-fi, and deeper character work as Gunn’s antihero grapples with the emotional fallout of his actions.

The HBO Max series is returning for a second season, five months after the events of The Suicide Squad (2021), following the character Christopher Smith, aka Peacemaker, who narrowly survived a mission on Corto Maltese where he was shot by Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior). Now, the U.S. government has recruited him to take part in a top-secret covert mission dubbed “Project Butterfly,” joining a new, official A.R.G.U.S. team of specialized superheroes under the command of Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) and backed by A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economos (Steve Agee), NSA agent Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), and recruit Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks).

Season 1 of Peacemaker adapted events from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League by revealing that the “secret government mission” was a mission to stop an alien species of parasitic space butterflies that had traveled to Earth and were rapidly taking over the population by possessing human hosts. At the end of the first season, Smith and his ragtag team of mercenaries, criminals, and superheroes had taken down the alien invaders in a bloody conflict at a ranch and survived, though some were not as lucky, and Smith is left with lingering injuries and serious emotional baggage.

Ahead of Season 2, which is slated to arrive next summer on HBO Max, Gunn confirmed to reporters at Comic-Con that while the events of Season 1 did take place in the DCEU, the broader DCEU was not coming back, and the Peacemaker sequel will exist in a “whole new universe.” Gunn went on to explain to reporters that this new DC Universe—which the creative team at DC has named the DCU—would be helmed by Gunn and his filmmaking slate “Gods and Monsters,” with Season 2 of Peacemaker now considered part of the ongoing DCU narrative continuity. Gunn did confirm, however, that past events—including Peacemaker’s part in the climactic invasion of Corto Maltese as depicted in The Suicide Squad (2021) are still canon, save for some possible “cameos from other Justice League members.”

Actors who will return for Season 2 include Cena, Brooks, Holland, Agee, and Freddie Stroma as Peacemaker’s favorite whipping boy, the unhinged Vigilante. Also returning is Nhut Le as Judomaster and Eagly, Peacemaker’s mute, bombshell, bald eagle sidekick. Robert Patrick also returns as Peacemaker’s dead father, Auggie Smith, with Gunn teasing that Auggie will be a character who “still comes up a lot” in Season 2. New actors confirmed for Season 2 include Frank Grillo as Rick Flagg Sr., the father of the late Rick Flagg, who Peacemaker murdered at the end of The Suicide Squad. Flagg will now run A.R.G.U.S. and is looking for vengeance. Joining the cast are Tim Meadows as agent Langston Fleury, Sol Rodriguez as Sasha Bordeaux, and Michael Rooker as Red St. Wild, who Gunn described as Eagly’s “nemesis.”

According to the official synopsis, Chris Smith is coming to terms with the emotional toll of his past transgressions and his desire to become a better person. While he still has a desire for “peace at any cost,” he wants to make peace through heroism rather than merely following orders.

A teaser was released in May, providing the first look at Season 2’s wacky brand of superheroic craziness. Set to the tune of Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord,” the teaser provided hints at new side characters (more on that below) and gave a glimpse of Chris Smith as he tries, and spectacularly fails, to get on the Justice League team. Speaking with Johns (and members of his family) of Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders (Isabela Merced), and Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), all reprising their roles from Gunn’s Superman, Chris pitches his worth as a team player and a hero. The conversation, predictably, does not go well.

The teaser also gave fans a fun glimpse into the characters’ personal lives in Season 2. New character Adebayo is now “living in the worst level of Grand Theft Auto,” according to Economos. Harcourt is said to be suffering from “a particularly severe form of toxic masculinity,” while Vigilante is now working in the food service industry.

The biggest surprise from the trailer? A multiversal rift. After being roughed up by a mercenary at a high-end hotel, Chris Smith finds himself suddenly stumbling through a dimensional portal. In the parallel universe he ends up in, there is another version of himself who is already a “good dude” in the eyes of the world, already beloved as a true hero and admired for his good deeds. Chris’s current self is not quite so lucky, of course. Frustrated that the world doesn’t seem to care about him—and still bummed about his relationship status with Adebayo—he thinks about staying with the other version of himself in this alternative timeline. But as is his M.O., his past has come back to haunt him. Harcourt drops a poignant line as she and the others chase him back across the multiverse: “No matter how green the grass is over there, you belong here. With us.”

Gunn, who appeared during the Hall H panel at SDCC, told the press that Season 2 is a chance to explore what it means for his characters to “grow and change.” “I like 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 that he uncovered in the first season, and is trying to deal with them, and the world is not accepting him the way he is. They aren’t accepting him as a hero.”

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