Peacemaker Season 2: Old Faces, New Worlds, Same Chaos

At San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, HBO Max unveiled the first official, full-length trailer for Season 2 of Peacemaker, James Gunn’s Emmy-nominated DC spinoff series. The trailer offers the first in-depth look at what to expect from Peacemaker in Season 2, and it’s a lot: The preposterous violence and chaos from Season 1 are back and bigger than ever, but there’s also a deeper emotional core and a more personal story at the center of Gunn’s expanding superhero universe.

Premiering this summer on HBO Max, Peacemaker Season 2 picks up a few months after the events of The Suicide Squad (2021). Peacemaker’s eight-episode first season is set five months after the main squad’s Corto Maltese mission, and protagonist Christopher Smith (John Cena) is still reeling from his near-death experience after getting shot in the neck. He’s been given a second chance and was brought back into the fold by the U.S. government, who’s tasked him with heading up a covert, black ops mission code-named “Project Butterfly.” This team will be made up of new members, including the oddly British A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economos (Steve Agee), and an NSA agent named Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), who at times is partnered with Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), a tough military tech specialist who joined the team mid-mission. Smith’s team will also be led by Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji), a gruff government operative, and backed by his father, the enigmatic Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick), who reprises his role from the first season.

The Season 1 trailer alluded to the complicated mission ahead: Project Butterfly is meant to be a standard mission for Smith and his government-backed new team, but as the season goes on, it becomes clear this mission is more than it seems. Project Butterfly’s team is pitted against an alien species made up of parasitic butterflies that gained a foothold on Earth by inhabiting human bodies and taking them over. In the end, Smith and his friends succeed in their mission, saving the day and the Earth and barely escaping with their lives from a blood-soaked ranch.

Now, Peacemaker returns to an entirely different DCU. While Gunn’s first season set up Peacemaker in the DCEU universe, which was folded into Gunn’s larger DC multiverse, Gunn announced this past June that Season 2 of Peacemaker takes place in the newly minted DCU. This new DCU was introduced by Gunn as part of his slate of DC Universe storytelling, collectively dubbed the “Gods and Monsters” universe. Gunn confirmed that, while there’s a new DCU in place, the history and events of Season 1 (sans a few cameo appearances from members of the Justice League) are still canon.

Fans will see the return of Cena, Brooks, Holland, Agee, and Freddie Stroma as Peacemaker’s fan-favorite villain-turned-costar, the unhinged Vigilante. Joining them is Nhut Le as Judomaster and Eagly, Peacemaker’s loyal bald eagle sidekick from the first season. Also returning is Robert Patrick as Peacemaker’s dead father, Auggie Smith, whose larger-than-life presence still haunts Smith to this day. New cast members announced for Season 2 include Frank Grillo as Rick Flagg Sr., the father of the late Rick Flagg (Cole Cunningham), who was killed by Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad. According to Gunn, Grillo’s Flag is now in charge of A.R.G.U.S. and is seeking revenge on Smith. Other new characters this season include Tim Meadows as agent Langston Fleury, Sol Rodriguez as Sasha Bordeaux, and Michael Rooker as Red St. Wild, described as Eagly’s “nemesis.”

The official synopsis states that this season, Chris Smith is coming to terms with both the emotional damage he’s caused in his violent past and his feelings about becoming a better person. He still believes in peace at any cost, but this time, Smith wants to earn peace by being a hero, not a blind follower.

One teaser for Season 2 released in May also offered some first looks at the characters and clues as to what to expect this season. The teaser trailer, which features music from the glam metal band Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord,” showed new and old Peacemaker series set pieces including 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 movie. Peacemaker’s pitch to join the team? Predictably, his antics land him right back on the cutting room floor.

The teaser also gave new character updates from a distance. According to Economos, Adebayo “is currently living in the worst level of Grand Theft Auto.” Harcourt is “developing a particularly severe case of toxic masculinity,” and Vigilante is now “working in the food service industry.”

Season 2’s full trailer dropped at SDCC this weekend, and the most shocking reveal to fans? A dimensional portal. In a way, Gunn explained at the Hall H panel, the second season of Peacemaker is about Chris Smith running into another version of himself, albeit one that is on the opposite side of the universe. Chris finds himself in a parallel world, one in which another, already beloved and certified heroic version of himself already exists. Peacemaker, at first elated at the chance to be a hero in this other world, begins to consider abandoning his universe, with its romantic frustrations and lack of status as a true hero. But as with anything in Peacemaker, his past is never that far behind. He’s pulled back to his world, and Harcourt hits him with the unfortunate truth. “No matter how green the grass is over there, you belong here. With us.”

James Gunn has said multiple times that Season 2 of Peacemaker is less about set pieces and insane action sequences than it is about character development and showing growth in its main characters. “I like TV shows where the characters don’t just return every season and they’re the same characters,” Gunn said on the Hall H panel. “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.”

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