James Gunn’s Peacemaker Returns: What’s New in Season 2

HBO Max put on a hell of a show at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, debuting the full-length trailer for Season 2 of Peacemaker, James Gunn’s Emmy-nominated DC spinoff series. The new trailer is the first extended look at what’s in store for John Cena’s Christopher Smith (aka Peacemaker) next, and already, it’s safe to say: buckle up, because this season is going bigger, weirder, and much more emotional.

Peacemaker Season 1 took place five months after the events of The Suicide Squad (2021), which means the action begins five months after Peacemaker’s titular hero barely survived a near-fatal gunshot at the end of James Gunn’s film. He’s since been recruited by the U.S. government to go on another super-secret mission codenamed “Project Butterfly,” this time with a new team under the leadership of Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) and underwritten by old A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economos (Steve Agee), new NSA agent Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), and a new face: Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks).

Project Butterfly turned out to be much more than a standard government clean-up job, as the team was charged with tracking down and terminating a parasitic alien species—human-shaped butterflies—that travel through space and time to inhabit human hosts and take over their bodies. By the end of the bloody season finale on a ranch, the ragtag team vanquished the creatures and escaped with their lives (though not without major injuries and long-lasting emotional trauma).

Now, Peacemaker Season 2 returns, and the DC Universe has been turned upside down once more. Gunn introduced his own new DCU earlier this summer with his “Gods and Monsters” storytelling slate. Season 2 of Peacemaker, while existing in the new DCU, still finds itself coming in on the heels of Gunn’s Season 1, which existed within the parameters of the now-defunct DCEU. But Gunn has also confirmed events from the first season, minus a few cameos from his League of Super-Pets, are still canon.

The returning cast includes Cena, Brooks, Holland, Agee, and Freddie Stroma as the fan-favorite, wackadoo villain, Vigilante. Returning from Season 1 is Nhut Le as Judomaster, as well as Eagly, Peacemaker’s trusty bald eagle sidekick. Robert Patrick will also be back to reprise his role as Peacemaker’s dead father, Auggie Smith. Joining the returning cast this season are Frank Grillo as Rick Flagg Sr., the father of Rick Flagg, the villain killed by Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad, who now leads A.R.G.U.S. after its separation from S.H.A.D.E., and is out for revenge. Grillo’s presence in the series will likely address the character’s apparent role as a villain in James Gunn’s Green Lantern (2022) follow-up, The Brick. Meadows, Rodriguez, and Rooker will also join as agents Langston Fleury, Sasha Bordeaux, and Red St. Wild, respectively. St. Wild is described as Eagly’s “nemesis.”

In the official synopsis, Chris Smith is still struggling with the emotional ramifications of his life of violence and is also learning to deal with his desire to be a better person, even as he’s “still seeking peace at all costs.” But this season, he wants to earn it through heroism rather than obedience alone.

In a teaser trailer released back in May, Gunn teased the absurdity and intensity that’s to come in the season’s first six installments. Shot to the tune of Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord,” the footage showed a failed attempt by Chris to join the Justice League, including Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders (Isabela Merced), and Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), all reprising their roles from Gunn’s Superman. Naturally, his pitch flops.

The teaser also gave us some fun updates about the main characters. It turns out Adebayo is “living in the worst level of Grand Theft Auto,” according to Economos, and Harcourt is “reportedly suffering from a particularly severe form of toxic masculinity,” while Vigilante has ended up working in the food service industry.

The most exciting part of the trailer? A dimensional portal. In a wild plot twist, Chris ends up stumbling across a parallel universe, where he meets a version of himself that, to his shock and delight, is already known and celebrated as a real-life hero. That being said, he’s not doing so great at romance and relationships in this world. He makes a run for it, considering whether or not he should stay. Of course, as Peacemaker has taught us, the past is always quick to catch up, even when jumping through portals. “No matter how green the grass is over there, you belong here. With us,” Harcourt tellingly says.

James Gunn was on hand to speak during Hall H at SDCC, where he teased character growth in Season 2. “I like TV shows where the characters don’t just return every season and they’re the same characters. I want to see growth. I want to see change—and sometimes regression,” Gunn said. “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.”

More posts to come from the DCU Hall H panel presentation and SDCC as a whole. Peacemaker Season 2 premieres August 21, 2025, exclusively on HBO Max.