Peacemaker Enters Parallel Universe in S2: Here’s Why That Matters

HBO Max brought some San Diego Comic-Con color this past weekend, presenting the first official, full-length trailer for the second season of Peacemaker, an Emmy-nominated DC spinoff series from James Gunn. The trailer offers the first extended look at what to expect from the character of John Cena’s Christopher Smith, aka Peacemaker, next season, and it is safe to say it is going to get bigger, weirder, and more emotional than ever before.

Set after the events of The Suicide Squad (2021), the eight-episode first season of Peacemaker was initially set five months after the events of the Corto Maltese mission, which left Smith as the sole survivor of the team after barely surviving a near-fatal gunshot. Instead of burying him in a shallow grave as ordered, however, he was scooped up by the U.S. government, given a second chance at life, and offered a front row seat in Project Butterfly—a covert black ops mission to take down a new criminal organization. Smith joins a new team under the leadership of Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) and with support from a trio of A.R.G.U.S. agents: John Economos (Steve Agee), NSA agent Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), and newly recruited Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks).

But of course, it wasn’t a run-of-the-mill government operation. The A-team was charged with tracking and stopping an alien race, parasitic butterfly-like aliens that are terrorizing Earth by occupying human bodies. They were able to defeat the creatures in a gory ranch showdown at the end of the season, but not without some serious injuries and blood on their hands.

Peacemaker now returns to a very different DC Universe, in which Season 1 exists in the DCEU that has been effectively retired, while Season 2 heads into the shiny and new DCU that Gunn himself helmed as part of his “Gods and Monsters” slate. Gunn has also confirmed that, even with a new cinematic universe, storylines from the previous season and movies are canon, outside of some Justice League cameo appearances.

Returning for the next season are Cena, Brooks, Holland, Agee, and Freddie Stroma as the fan-favorite, loony villain Vigilante. Also back is Nhut Le as Judomaster, as well as Eagly, Peacemaker’s always-loyal bald eagle sidekick. Joining them for recurring roles are Robert Patrick as Peacemaker’s deceased father, Auggie Smith, whose shadow has only grown larger, Frank Grillo as Rick Flagg Sr., the father of The Suicide Squad’s now-deceased Rick Flagg, whom Peacemaker murdered, and Flagg, who has since taken over leadership of A.R.G.U.S. and is out for vengeance. Also new to the series this season are Tim Meadows as agent Langston Fleury, Sol Rodriguez as Sasha Bordeaux, and Michael Rooker as Red St. Wild, who is referred to as Eagly’s “nemesis.”

In an official synopsis of the series, it is said that this season, Peacemaker finds Chris Smith now grappling not only with the emotional fallout of his violent history, but also a burning desire to be more than just a sword that the U.S. government is wielding against anyone they decide they need to take down. He is still very much on the peace at all costs path, but with this season, he wants to earn it through heroism, instead of only cowed obedience.

May’s teaser trailer gave the first taste of how absurd and intense the second season was going to be, with the official trailer only amplifying the craziness to 11. Set to the soundtrack of Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord,” a new first look at the official trailer showed Peacemaker attempting to break into the Justice League—complete 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—only to see his pitch fall completely flat, naturally.

Other fun character callbacks in the teaser include Adebayo “living in the worst level of Grand Theft Auto,” according to Economos. Harcourt is reported to have contracted “a particularly severe form of toxic masculinity,” while Vigilante has managed to score himself a job in food service.

It is, of course, the trailer’s big reveal at the end that fans are buzzing about most, with Chris appearing to break into a dimensional portal of some kind and finding himself in a strange parallel universe where he is no longer who he is—or, perhaps, who he was, or who he is destined to be. In this multiverse, he meets another version of himself: one that is adored, celebrated, and is a true hero. While internally struggling with the other Peacemaker’s life—thinking aloud that this Chris is more of the person that he always wanted to be—he ponders why he can’t stay with this version of himself, specifically, because of a series of failed relationships and lack of recognition in his timeline. Predictably, this Peacemaker’s past comes back to haunt him: “No matter how green the grass is over there, you belong here. With us,” Harcourt says to him somberly.

Gunn, who presented at Hall H at SDCC as well, explained that this new season is all about growth. “I like TV shows where the characters don’t just return every season and they’re the same characters,” Gunn said, in an exclusive interview with SDCC. “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.”

So what does this all mean for Season 2? Judging by the first look and everything we know so far, expect the typical outrageous action and humor that fans of Peacemaker have come to know and love, with deeper character development and a new multiversal element thrown into the mix for good measure. Can Peacemaker finally come to terms with who he is—or who he wants to be? Time and Season 2 will tell.

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