– Releasing on August 21/22
– Comprises eight episodes
– Trailers released in May, July, and August
– Main cast all set to return
– Will also feature new and established characters in the rebooted DCU
– Plot synopsis revealed
– Addresses which parts of season 1 will be canon in the DCU
– Will have a huge impact on future DCU projects
– Third season hasn’t been greenlit yet
Peacemaker season 2 is almost here. Over three years after its debut season was released, the popular HBO Max show will return on August 21 or 22, depending on where you live – and, as you’ll see in my Peacemaker season 2 review, it was worth the wait.
Before it launches, you’ll want to get the ultimate lowdown on what to expect from it. Below, I’ve rounded up the biggest news and rumors about Peacemaker‘s second season, including more details on its cast, plot, trailers, and impact on the wider DC Universe (DCU).
Full spoilers follow for Peacemaker season 1. Possible spoilers are also on the way for its sequel.
Peacemaker season 2 release date
As I mentioned, this season will launch on Thursday, August 21 (North and South America) and Friday, August 22 (everywhere else). Peacemaker season 2’s release date was confirmed in April.
As for where you can stream it, it’ll air on HBO Max in nations that the super streamer is available in, such as the US and Australia. Viewers in countries where one of the world’s best streaming services hasn’t launched yet should check out my Peacemaker season 2 release schedule guide to learn where they can catch it.
Peacemaker season 2 trailer
Peacemaker season 2’s first trailer arrived in May and there’s a lot it revealed about this season’s plot. Namely, that the titular character will be hunted by Rick Flag Sr – remember, Peacemaker killed Rick Flag Jr in 2021’s The Suicide Squad movie – and, by way of a larger and/or multiversal Quantum Unfolding Chamber (QUC), stumble upon an alternate reality. I’ll dig into more about that in this guide’s plot section.
Two more trailers have been released since then. Peacemaker season 2’s official trailer (see above) arrived in July before Peacemaker 2‘s red band trailer (see below) debuted online in mid-August and appeared to spoil a significant storyline.
Peacemaker season 2 cast
Full spoilers follow for Peacemaker season 1.
Here’s who you’ll see in Peacemaker season 2:
- John Cena as Christopher Smith/Peacemaker
- Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt
- Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo
- Freddie Stroma as Adrian Chase/Vigilante
- Steve Agee as John Economos
- Nhut Le as Judomaster
- Robert Patrick as Auggie Smith/White Dragon
- Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr.
- Tim Meadows as Langston Fleury
- Sol Rodriguez as Sasha Bordeaux
- Michael B. Rooker as Red St. Wild
- David Denman as TBC
- Isabela Merced as Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl
- Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner/Green Lantern
- Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord
The first seven actors reprise their roles from the series’ debut season. That’s in spite of Patrick’s Auggie Smith perishing last season but, spoilers notwithstanding, he’s still got a part to play this time around. As for the first five characters, who are collectively known as the 11th Street Kids, Peacemaker 2‘s cast have teased what lies in store for some of them in the series’ next entry.
On the newcomer front, the headline news is Grillo – best known for playing Brock ‘Crossbones’ Rumlow in the Captain America movies – will appear as Flag Sr. Grillo voiced the character in season 1 of R-rated animated show Creature Commandos, which was the DCU’s first project.
As we learned in James Gunn’s Superman movie, Flag Sr is the newly-appointed head of ARGUS, a government organization that keeps tabs on DC Comics’ various metahumans. With the group’s vast resources now at his disposal, he’ll use them to track down Smith to seek revenge for his son’s death.
Other cast additions include Rodriguez (Star Trek: Picard) as Sasha Bordeaux, a character with big ties to Batman in the comics who appears to be Flag Sr’s deputy in this show. Meanwhile, Meadows (Mean Girls) plays Fleury, another ARGUS agent, while Denman’s role is yet to be publicly confirmed.
Meanwhile, Rooker is on board as an original character called Red St. Wild, aka the character in the above Instagram image. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly (EW), Gunn said he’ll be the antagonist of a secondary plot involving Eagly, Peacemaker’s bald eagle sidekick. Gunn’s brother Sean, Merced, and Fillion will cameo as the Justice Gang, too.
There are also rumors (per Cinemablend) that Joel Kinnaman could return as Flag Jr. As I mentioned earlier, Smith killed him in The Suicide Squad. If Kinnaman does return, it might have something to do with this season’s multiverse-style narrative.
Lastly, Gunn also told EW: “There might even be one really, really, really big cameo near the end of the show”. Place your bets on who it could be now.
Peacemaker season 2 story synopsis and speculation
Full spoilers follow for Peacemaker season 1. Potential spoilers are also discussed for season 2.
Here’s Peacemaker season 2’s official logline: “In season two, Peacemaker discovers an alternate world where life is everything he wishes it could be. But this discovery also forces him to face his traumatic past and take the future into his own hands.”
Before we dive into more potentially spoiler-filled story territory, let’s address the question on every fan’s mind: will Peacemaker season 2 feature a new, dance number-esque intro sequence that’ll surely go viral on TikTok? In short: yes.
“I’m very happy with it,” Cena told Collider. “I want to say so much more, but… everyone was super enthused and also understood how important it is this time around, and I really hope that shows. I know the show is great. In my mind, the opening number is great. I hope the world agrees.”
But back to season 2’s actual plot. “It essentially picks up where season 1 left off,” Gunn told a fan on Threads, although he added that there’ll be “a couple of minor differences”. Those are to be expected, especially in light of the fact that seasons 1 and 2 exist in completely different comic book universes.
Speaking to IGN, Gunn said of season 1’s canonicity in the DCU: “The truth is almost all of Peacemaker is canon with the exception of The Justice League [who cameo at the end of season 1]. We will kind of deal with [that in season 2]”. Elaborating further to Den of Geek, Gunn said: “There are certain things from the old universe that we refer to in Peacemaker season 2 but, until then, they’re not canon. Almost everything from season 1 is canon, but season 2 will explain everything that is or is not canon.”
Gunn also teased (via EW) that the QUC, which we saw last season, “is the center of the story”, so expect it to have an integral role to play in Smith jumping between universes. Smith will spend much of this chapter trying to stay out of Flag Sr’s reach, too. Indeed, Flag Sr will be on a “mission of justice” to avenge his son’s death, so expect Peacemaker 2 to also center around this cat and mouse game.
Smith will continue to contend with other moments his own trauma-laced past, including accidentally killing his older brother, as well as present day problems, such as his ongoing efforts to woo Emilia Harcourt, who’s not romantically interested in him.
Admittedly, Smith redeemed himself somewhat by helping to put a stop to the Butterflies in season 1 – so much so that, as the DCU Chapter One show’s first trailer reveals, he’ll even try and join the DCU’s Justice Gang, which we’ll first see in 2025’s Superman. It seems, though, that it’ll take more than one world-saving mission to remove the ‘anti’ part of his anti-hero facade.
“He’s still considered a punchline among all of the other metahumans, so he’s starting the season in a bad place,” Gunn told EW. “As are all of our heroes, all of the 11th Street kids – well, everybody but Vigilante, who just always seems to be okay with everything.”
Hopefully, every member of the 11th Street Kids will not only get their moment to shine in one of the best HBO Max shows‘ sophomore outing, but also be explored in more detail, too, especially from emotional and psychological perspectives.
“[Season 2 ] is all about the twists and turns,” Gunn told EW. “It’s about the surprises we find out in episode 1, 6, and 8. And it’s a very, very emotional season – there’s a lot of comedy like the first season, but there’s also a lot of emotion in it, and it’s really good.”
Viewers will be able to hear first-hand from Gunn about this season’s narrative and creative choices, too, on The Official Peacemaker Podcast. Every week, a new episode will drop that explores the show’s latest chapter in more detail, so be sure to tune in and/or keep tabs on TechRadar as I plan on covering the biggest reveals from each episode of the series and podcast in the coming weeks.
How will Peacemaker season 2 impact the wider DCU?
The short answer is: we don’t know. However, Gunn has said (via EW) that “I developed it [season 2] along the way, in conjunction with the other DC projects that we’re doing, so it’s very much connected to Superman and it’s very much connected to what comes after.”
Adding further fuel to the fire about how important Peacemaker 2 will be to his and Peter Safran’s nascent cinematic franchise, Gunn told ScreenRant: “”It’s not what anyone thinks. It’s not what anyone would guess, but I think if people watch the next season of Peacemaker, they’ll see where a lot of these things are going, and have a little bit more of a sense of maybe what can happen”. He also told The Hollywood Reporter: “I think what you see in season two is just a forward of that narrative. That whole DCU throughline — it takes the 11th Street Kids through their next adventure, but it also has a lot to do with the DCU going forward.”
Right now, only three live-action projects are officially in active development: Supergirl, Lanterns, and Clayface. Admittedly, there are more productions in the pipeline, but these three have been filmed or are in the process of being shot.
Of that trio, Lanterns is arguably the production that’ll be most impacted by Peacemaker 2, especially with Fillion’s Gardner set to have a role in the DCU’s Green Lantern TV show. Meanwhile, Sol Rodriguez has expressed her wish for Sasha Bordeaux to show up in the DCU’s Batman movie, which is currently titled The Brave and the Bold.
How the other two movies, future DCU films and TV shows, and other DC Studios projects – those denoted as Elsewords productions, such as The Batman Part II, are affected remains to be seen. But, with Peacemaker season 2 out shortly, we don’t have much longer to wait to learn more.
For more DC Comics-based coverage, read our guides on how to watch the DC movies in order, how to watch the Superman movies in order, and how to watch the Batman movies in order. Then, get the lowdown on the next DCU movie via my dedicated guide on Supergirl.
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