John Cena stars as the titular character alongside Danielle Brooks, Freddie Stroma, Jennifer Holland, Steve Agee, Frank Grillo, and Robert Patrick. The season was ordered in February 2022, with Gunn set to write and direct all eight episodes. Filming was expected to begin in 2023, but work was put on hold when Gunn was made co-CEO of DC Studios and switched focus to Superman. The spin-off series Waller was then prioritized, but later delayed by the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes, and in March 2024 Gunn announced that the second season of Peacemaker would now come first. Some filming occurred the next month, taking place simultaneously with Superman at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. Principal photography for the season took place from June to November.
The season premiered on the streaming service HBO Max on August 21, 2025, and will consist of eight episodes. It has received critical acclaim from critics, who generally found it to be better than the first season and praised Cena's performance as well as the wider cast.
One night, Chris Smith / Peacemaker encounters a door in the Quantum Unfolding Chamber (QUC) he uses as a storage area, in which he finds an alternate reality where his father Auggie Smith is alive and a superhero. Six months later, Chris is displeased that he has not been taken seriously as a superhero and failed to join the Justice Gang, while Emilia Harcourt has been unable to find work in other agencies due to Amanda Waller's influence. Acting A.R.G.U.S. director Rick Flag Sr. is distrustful of John Economos' report on Peacemaker, while Economos and Leota Adebayo are aware that Flag knows that Peacemaker killed his son Rick Flag Jr.[a] Chris returns to the alternate reality, where his brother Keith is shown to also be alive and a superhero. Chris eventually encounters his counterpart and a fight breaks out in the QUC, which ends with the alternate Peacemaker being mortally wounded and dying in Chris' arms.
A.R.G.U.S. agent Langston Fleury is assigned as Economos' handler, as Flag Sr. grows suspicious of the latter. Adebayo visits Chris and informs him of Flag Sr. monitoring him, while suggesting he surrender the QUC to A.R.G.U.S. Adrian Chase meets with the pair and later helps Chris dispose of the alternate Peacemaker's corpse. While Chris and the 11th Street Kids hold a party on the rooftop of Harcourt's apartment, Fleury leads an A.R.G.U.S. squad to infiltrate Chris' residence, only to be assaulted by his bald eagle pet Eagly. A drunken Chris returns home and goes to the alternate universe once more, this time sending a text to this universe's Harcourt, who was previously in a relationship with the alternate Peacemaker.
Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt: A member of Team Peacemaker, and former A.R.G.U.S. agent.[11] Holland also portrays an alternate version of Harcourt, who was previously in a relationship with her reality's Peacemaker.[13]
Steve Agee as John Economos: An A.R.G.U.S. agent who previously provided tactical support for Team Peacemaker. Following the events of the first season, Economos now continues to work under Rick Flag Sr. to monitor Peacemaker's activities.[11]
Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr.: The former leader of the Creature Commandos who took over as the acting director of A.R.G.U.S. He is angry about the death of his son, Suicide Squad leader Rick Flag Jr., at the hands of Peacemaker in the film The Suicide Squad (2021).[14][15] Showrunner James Gunn said Flag Sr. and Peacemaker have "unfinished business to take care of",[16][17] and Flag Sr. is basically the antagonist of the season. Gunn enjoyed evolving the character in the DC Universe (DCU) from his introduction as a protagonist in the animated series Creature Commandos (2024–present).[18] Flag Sr. has dark hair in the season, rather than grey hair as in Creature Commandos, because Grillo was filming the series Tulsa King (2022–present) simultaneously with Peacemaker and Gunn felt temporary hair dye would not look good. His in-universe explanation was that Flag Sr. dyed his hair due to vanity and ego.[15]
David Denman as Keith Smith / Captain Triumph: Peacemaker's brother who is still alive in the alternate universe, and is part of the "Top Trio" team as a superhero alongside him and Auggie.[20] Liam Hughes portrayed a younger version of Keith in the first season.[21]
Tim Meadows as Langston Fleury: An A.R.G.U.S. agent assigned by Bordeaux to supervise Economos with monitoring Peacemaker[23][24]
Reinaldo Faberlle as Vega: An A.R.G.U.S. agent who Fleury nicknames "Mexicali"[25]
Brandon Stanley as Kline: An A.R.G.U.S. agent who Fleury gives multiple nicknames, including "Ponyboy", "Barely Legal", and "Kewpie Doll"[26]
Michael Rooker as Red St. Wild: The world's foremost eagle hunter who is on a mission to kill Eagly[27]
Guest
Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord: The owner of LordTech Corporation and financial backer of the superhero group Justice Gang.[28] James Gunn described Lord as a "morally grey" character inspired by his earlier comic appearances as he wanted to avoid an adaptation of Lord's supervillain identity that is shown in the current comics for future DCU appearances.[29]
Other actors also reprising their roles from the DCU film Superman (2025) include: Terence Rosemore and Stephen Blackehart as LuthorCorp employees Otis Berg and Sydney Happersen; and James Hiroyuki Liao as Secretary Mori, the U.S. Secretary of Defense.[28] Additionally, Nhut Le reprises his role as Rip Jagger / Judomaster from the first season.[30][10] Anissa Matlock portrays A.R.G.U.S. agent Angler (nicknamed "Titties" by Fleury), Taylor St. Clair portrays Vigilante's mother Mrs. Chase, and Dorian Kingi portrays an alien who frequently encounters Peacemaker in the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, credited as the "Kyphotic Alien".[31][26] Peacemaker's pet bald eagle, Eagly, returns from the first season, voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.[32] Brey Noelle appears in a brief cameo appearance as the White Rabbit.[33]
Production
Development
James Gunn, creator and showrunner of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) series Peacemaker, said in August 2021 that he wanted to make a second season and was committed to doing so if the series was renewed.[34] He reiterated this after the first season premiered in January 2022, despite he and star John Cena not yet having deals to return for a second season and Gunn wanting to take a break after a busy few years.[35][36] Gunn did not formally agree to make a second season until he had worked out what he wanted the overall character arcs to be, as he and Cena did not want to agree to something that they would not love to make.[37] Streaming service HBO Max officially announced the second season in February 2022, with Gunn set to write and direct all episodes.[9] He said it would explore the repercussions, good and bad, of the first season's events.[38]
Discovery, Inc. and Warner Bros.' parent company WarnerMedia merged in April 2022 to become Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), led by president and CEO David Zaslav. The new company was expected to restructure DC Entertainment and Zaslav began searching for an equivalent to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige to lead the new subsidiary.[39] After the surprise cancellation of DC's Batgirl film by WBD in August, Gunn said the second season of Peacemaker was "safe",[40] and would begin filming in 2023.[41] Gunn and producer Peter Safran were announced as the co-chairs and co-CEOs of the newly formed DC Studios at the end of October 2022.[42] A week after starting their new roles, the pair had begun working with a group of writers to develop an eight-to-ten-year plan for a new DC Universe (DCU) that would be a "soft reboot" of the DCEU.[43][44][45] Gunn and Safran said some cast members would return from their film The Suicide Squad (2021) and the first season of Peacemaker in the DCU, and a "rough memory" of those events would remain in the new universe.[46] Because Gunn was busy with his new responsibilities, the second season of Peacemaker was put on hold by January 2023.[47] In February, Gunn said the series was delayed by his work on the first DCU film, Superman (2025), but it was not canceled and would be made after the spin-off series Waller.[48] He said Peacemaker's second season was his next project after Superman,[49][50] and would be part of the DCU's Chapter One: Gods and Monsters slate of content.[51]
Gunn said in October 2023 that the season would address its change from the DCEU continuity to the DCU continuity.[52] He stated that the first season was not canon to the DCU,[53] but later clarified that most of the first season's events are canon to the DCU except for specific moments such as the appearance of the DCEU's Justice League.[54] In March 2024, Gunn revealed that Waller had been delayed by the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes and the second season of Peacemaker would now be made first. Production was set to take place simultaneously with Superman later in 2024, in the interest of getting the season ready as soon as possible, so Gunn was no longer able to direct all of the episodes.[55] He ultimately directed three episodes, including the first,[17] with Greg Mottola, Peter Sollett, and Alethea Jones also directing.[4][5][56]
Writing
Gunn was writing the season by October 2023, following the conclusion of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike,[57] and he finished writing all eight episodes by early February 2024.[2] He said the season was more about Chris Smith, referring to Peacemaker's real name, and the interconnectivity between the characters and their personal lives.[18] Gunn initially intended to write the second season of Peacemaker before Superman, but plans changed for him once he took the reins of DC Studios, with the pocket universe storyline from that film playing a role in his story for the season. An initial rought outline for the season Gunn wrote based on Philip Roth's novel The Counterlife (1986) had white supremacist superheroes going after the titular character for killing his father August "Auggie" Smith / White Dragon due to him being their comrade, as Gunn intended for Peacemaker to really deal with the ramifications of his actions and face the emotional reality of the demons he discovered in the first season, but Gunn ultimately felt that the draft played a little bit too much like that season and he wanted to turn the story on its heels, leading him to come up with an alternate reality where Peacemaker finds out a counterpart of his who is better than him in every seemingly way, forcing him into an emotional standpoint to face his ghosts from the past while mixed in a potent love story.[58] It is set one month after the events of Superman.[59]
The season addresses how the show's first season fits into the DCU via a recap at the start of the season, which notably retcons the DCEU's Justice League who appeared in "It's Cow or Never" by replacing them with the Justice Gang alongside Superman and Supergirl, all of whom debuted in Superman (2025).[60][61]
In April 2023, when announcing the cast of the DCU animated series Creature Commandos (2024–present), Gunn said there were plans for some of the voice actors to reprise their roles in live-action DCU projects. He specifically highlighted Frank Grillo's casting as Rick Flag Sr. for all DCU media.[62] In May 2024, Gunn announced that Grillo would be reprising his role as Flag Sr. in the second season of Peacemaker.[16]Sol Rodríguez, David Denman, and Tim Meadows were cast the following month, with Rodríguez portraying Sasha Bordeaux and Meadows cast as Langston Fleury.[22][23] Fleury was one of the characters Gunn considered among the hardest he ever had to cast, stating that Meadows was offered and ultimately signed to portray after "hundreds" of actors auditioned for the role.[63] Sollett indicated in July that Joel Kinnaman was reprising his role as Rick Flag Jr. from The Suicide Squad,[5] but Kinnaman said he would not appear.[64] In November, Gunn revealed that Anissa Matlock, Taylor St. Clair, Dorian Kingi, and Brandon Stanley were part of the cast.[31][26]
Gunn said in March 2024 that filming would begin later that year, simultaneously with production on Superman,[55] at Trilith Studios in Atlanta, Georgia.[66] Filming began on April 13, with Gunn doing a "pre-shoot" on a Saturday to work around his Superman filming commitments.[67] He was directing three of the episodes and had hired three other directors for the season:[17][67]Greg Mottola,[23] who directed the second and third episodes;[4]Peter Sollett, who directed the fourth episode;[5] and Alethea Jones, who directed multiple episodes.[56] Sam McCurdy was the cinematographer.[26]Principal photography began on June 13,[68][69] and wrapped on November 25.[26]
Title sequence
After the first season's opening title sequence received positive responses, Gunn said they wanted to "up [their] game" for the second season.[70] Charissa Barton returned to choreograph the second season's title sequence.[71] Gunn considered various music choices for the sequence, including reusing the first season's title song "Do Ya Wanna Taste It" by Wig Wam, before settling on a new song that he said aligned with the season's focus on Chris Smith over Peacemaker.[18] The song was revealed in July 2025 to be "Oh Lord" by Foxy Shazam.[72]
Marketing
Cena debuted the first footage from the season during TNT Sports's Inside the NBA in May 2025. A teaser trailer was released soon after, featuring the song "Oh Lord" by Foxy Shazam. Discussion of the teaser focused on Peacemaker going on the run from A.R.G.U.S. for killing Rick Flag Jr. and how the series would explain the change in setting from the DCEU to the DCU. Michael Walsh at Nerdist highlighted the teaser's reveal of another version of Peacemaker who appears to be from an alternate universe within the DC Multiverse, questioning whether this is related to the change in continuity.[10][65][73] Commentators had similar thoughts on another trailer that was released in theaters, attached to screenings of Superman.[74][75] Gunn soon clarified that the different universes explored in the season are separate from how it addresses the change in setting from the DCEU to the DCU.[76]
Release
The season premiered on HBO Max on August 21, 2025.[77]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 99% of 72 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Peacemaker's second season goes multidimensional while still maintaining a singular focus on emotional stakes, seamlessly transporting this outrageous antihero into a fresh cinematic universe."[78]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 78 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[79] Critics found the season to be better than the first, calling it "just as dark, brutal, and silly" but more grounded, character focused, and heartwarming, with praise for Cena's performance and the wider cast.[80]
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