Redemption or Regression? Peacemaker Returns for S2 in August

HBO Max officially announced the launch of Season 2 of Peacemaker by revealing a full-length trailer during San Diego Comic-Con this weekend. The Emmy-nominated DC spinoff series from James Gunn premiered its eight-episode first season in 2022 to mixed but generally positive reviews, and the first extended look at a follow-up season is a major tease that whets the appetite. The trailer looks massive, weirder, more violent and bloody than ever, and most notably…emotional.

After the events of The Suicide Squad (2021), Peacemaker Season 1 was set five months after the events of the Corto Maltese mission and where we find John Cena’s titular character Chris Smith, having just barely survived a near-fatal gunshot wound. Picked up by the U.S. government and given a new off-book black ops mission called “Project Butterfly,” Smith was brought onto a new team being formed under Clemson Murn’s (Chukwudi Iwuji) leadership and with A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economos (Steve Agee) in the supervisory role, with backing from NSA agent Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), and a new team member Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) as well.

Project Butterfly proved to be far more than a standard government black ops mission, as Smith and his assembled team were tasked to take on an alien parasitic butterfly species that had come to Earth and began to take over the bodies of human hosts. At the end of the season, Smith and his ragtag team of new misfit heroes successfully take out all of the invading creatures in a bloody showdown at the ranch they’d made their base of operations, but not without grave injury and lasting emotional trauma.

Now, Peacemaker Season 2 will reintroduce fans to a far-changed DC Universe. Season 1 of Peacemaker occurred in the now-defunct DCEU, but its sequel will take place in a brand-new DCU, with Gunn having detailed his “Gods and Monsters” slate of DC stories for both film and television. Still, Gunn did confirm that the previous events of the TV show from last season were canon—except for some small cameos for characters that we know for a fact will appear in other places within Gunn’s “Gods and Monsters” stories.

Cena, Brooks, Holland, Agee, and Freddie Stroma as Peacemaker’s fan-favorite, psychopathic ally Vigilante will all be returning for Season 2, as will Nhut Le as Judomaster, Eagly (Peacemaker’s own constant companion/best bud, a bald eagle) and Robert Patrick reprising his role as Auggie Smith, Peacemaker’s deceased biological father. Gunn has also cast Frank Grillo as Rick Flagg Sr., father of the late Rick Flagg, played by Curtis Jones, who was murdered by Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad. As you can guess, Flagg Sr. is now in charge of A.R.G.U.S. and wants revenge. Joining the cast are Tim Meadows as A.R.G.U.S. agent Langston Fleury, Sol Rodriguez as Sasha Bordeaux, and Michael Rooker as Red St. Wild, the latter of whom has been described as Eagly’s “nemesis.”

In an official synopsis, Peacemaker’s second season shows Smith and the team not only have to deal with the physical and emotional tolls of last season, but also Smith’s budding desire to be a better person. He’s still going to make peace at any cost—but he also actually wants to be seen and recognized as a hero this time, rather than simply bending the knee.

An earlier teaser that dropped in May offered early hints at just what fans can expect from Peacemaker Season 2, an insane glimpse into the heightened, absurd world of James Gunn’s version of the DCU. One of the most fun teases set to music by Ohio rock group Foxy Shazam, the “Oh Lord” musical choice, as you can imagine, is fully utilized for maximum absurdity. Early footage shown includes Chris’ failed audition to join the Justice League—including Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders (Isabela Merced), and Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn) reprising their roles from Gunn’s Superman film, all in attendance. His pitch is terrible, unsurprisingly.

Other character teases included revelations that Adebayo is now “living in the worst level of Grand Theft Auto,” per Economos, while Harcourt has supposedly developed “a particularly severe form of toxic masculinity.” Vigilante, meanwhile, has landed in the fast food industry.

The biggest reveal of the trailer, though, comes in the form of a dimensional portal of some kind, as Peacemaker is glimpsed wandering into a parallel universe where he meets himself—only in this dimension, he is already well-known and beloved as a true hero. The second Peacemaker is fed up with his lack of a true heroic status in his home universe, including a particularly painful romantic rejection from Natalie, as he considers his luck in this other universe and even flirts with the notion of staying there. But, of course, his past comes back to haunt him—and it’s delivered with a sobering punch by Harcourt when she says: “No matter how green the grass is over there, you belong here. With us.”

James Gunn, who was on the Hall H panel at SDCC to speak about the new season, has noted that Season 2 is much more about seeing the characters grow. “I like TV shows where the characters don’t just come back every year and they’re the same characters,” Gunn told the panel, “I like to see change. I like to see growth—and sometimes I like to see regression. So, Peacemaker, this year is a different guy. He’s dealing with the demons that he uncovered from last year, 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.”

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