A lot can change in three years. The first season of Peacemaker concluded in February 2022. Since then, we’ve seen the premiere (and box-office underperformance) of Black Adam, the announced (and then retracted) return of Henry Cavill to the role of Superman, and the jettisoning of the DCEU/Snyder-verse approach entirely, in favor of what’s now known as the DCU, a “soft reboot” of DC’s properties stewarded by Peacemaker creator James Gunn and co-CEO Peter Safran and inaugurated on the big screen with last month’s Superman. A lot has happened, and we don’t blame you if you don’t remember everything that went down during Peacemaker’s first season.
HBO Max/Everett Collection
Created and helmed by James Gunn, Peacemaker’s first season took John Cena’s character from Gunn’s The Suicide Squad—a maybe-more-than-mildly-unhinged vigilante whose government name is Christopher Smith—and put him at the center of an action series that was also a deranged workplace comedy. Sprung from jail after his role in the events of that film, Smith is detailed to “Project Butterfly,” a covert-ops team assigned to secretly neutralize a group of aliens who’ve infiltrated Earth by disguising themselves as humans. Along for the ride are government agents Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), John Economos (Steve Agee), and Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), as well as Adrian Chase (Freddie Stroma), the vigilante known as, well, Vigilante.
When does Season 2 of Peacemaker take place?
The sophomore season of Peacemaker exists in a weird spot continuity-wise. It takes place after Gunn’s Superman and picks up plot threads from that film, including the near-destruction of Metropolis—but it’s also a sequel to season one, which was part of a previous creative regime. The Suicide Squad, while technically a DCEU movie, has direct bearing on the story of Peacemaker, so that story is part of the new canon, along with Gunn’s animated Creature Commandos series from earlier this year; Gunn has said that all of Peacemaker season 1 still happened the way we saw it happen, except for the cameo appearance at the end of the season 1 finale from the DCEU version of the Justice League, a group that doesn’t exist in Gunn’s DCU as of yet.
While we’re still waiting for the first episode of Peacemaker season two to determine what other pieces of the DCEU did or didn’t make the canonical cut, we do believe that three key plot points from season one will carry over into the future and are worth remembering accordingly. So, whether you need a refresher or are just tapping into the DCU off the strength of Superman, here’s what you need to remember from season one of Peacemaker.
Family Ties
As with a lot of Gunn’s work—especially his three Guardians of the Galaxy films for Marvel—Peacemaker deals with relationships between parents and children. And while Chris and his father are the crux of the show in a lot of ways—more on that in a second—there are other familial dynamics the show explores. In season 1, Adebayo is revealed to be the daughter of high-ranking government official Amanda Waller (played in past DC films, as well as forthcoming projects, by Viola Davis), who coerces her daughter to frame Peacemaker by planting a doctored journal in his home. Eventually, Adebayo betrays her mother, coming clean to the press about Waller’s shadowy wrongdoings after coming to understand and befriend Peacemaker.
