Peacemaker Faces Himself in an Alternate Universe in S2 Trailer

HBO Max dazzled San Diego Comic-Con attendees with a surprise Saturday panel revealing the full-length trailer for Season 2 of Peacemaker, the Emmy-nominated DC spinoff series helmed by James Gunn. The Peacemaker Season 2 trailer gives audiences their first substantial look at where the action-packed series will pick up for John Cena’s Christopher Smith, and it’s clear that Gunn’s new season is heading even bigger, weirder, and more heartfelt than before.

Peacemaker’s first season arrived on HBO Max in July 2022 following the events of The Suicide Squad (2021). Five months after the mission on Corto Maltese, Smith survived a near-death experience by gunshot and was assigned a new mission by the U.S. government, codenamed “Project Butterfly.” He was thrown into a new team of strange and misfit characters under Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji), with the backing of A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economos (Steve Agee), NSA agent Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), and new team member Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks).

“Project Butterfly” turns out to be anything but a routine government mission. Smith and his team of misfits are tasked with stopping an alien race of parasitic, humanoid butterflies that have traveled to Earth from space to take over the world by inhabiting human bodies and stealing their identities. They ultimately defeat the monsters in a bloody battle on a ranch and barely escape with their lives in the end, but at a severe cost.

The Peacemaker Season 2 trailer is just as bonkers as the first. Gunn’s multiversal action series now exists in the newly christened DCU, established by Gunn himself as part of his ongoing “Gods and Monsters” universe storytelling slate. Gunn confirmed at SDCC that the Season 2 events are canon to the larger DCU, even as the season changes its continuity timeline, so references to events from the first season will be honored, except for some notable cameos from Justice League characters.

Peacemaker features the return of Cena, Brooks, Holland, Agee, and Freddie Stroma as fan-favorite, psychopathic killer Vigilante. Other returning cast members include Nhut Le as Judomaster and Eagly, Peacemaker’s mascot-like bald eagle sidekick. Robert Patrick reprises his role as Peacemaker’s deceased father, Auggie Smith. Also joining the cast this season are Frank Grillo as Rick Flagg Sr., the father of Rick Flagg (Hiroyuki Sanada) — who was killed by Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad; Michael Rooker as Red St. Wild; and several others, including Tim Meadows as agent Langston Fleury, Sol Rodriguez as Sasha Bordeaux, and Christopher Meyer as Gribbs. Rooker’s Red St. Wild is described as Eagly’s “nemesis.”

The official synopsis for Season 2 reads: “Emotionally damaged by his previous mission, Chris Smith struggles to cope with his violent past while trying to move forward with his new goal: to become a better person. His goal of ‘peace’ has not changed, but he’s looking for a new way to get there—this time, heroism instead of blind obedience.”

The five-episode second season will pick up directly after the climactic ending of the first season. A teaser trailer was released back in May, offering early looks at the sheer scope, ridiculousness, and insanity of the new season. Sung to the beat of Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord,” the trailer featured Gunn’s long-time collaborator Christopher Nolan in what appears to be a scene in which Chris visits the Justice League offices. He’s shot down (pun intended) in his attempt to join Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders (Isabela Merced), and Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), who all reprise their roles from Gunn’s Superman. His uninspired pitch falls on deaf ears, as one would expect.

The teaser also offered fun tidbits into each character’s present condition since the events of the first season. Adebayo was “living in the worst level of Grand Theft Auto,” according to Economos. Harcourt is suffering from “a particularly severe form of toxic masculinity,” and Vigilante has resorted to working in the food service industry.

The big shocker in the trailer, however, was a dimensional portal. In a wild turn of events, Chris runs through a portal and ends up in an alternate dimension where he finds himself face to face with another version of himself: a popular, award-winning hero. Chris expresses his annoyance with his lack of respect and relationship failures in his reality and voices the idea of staying in this other universe where he is appreciated and valued. As he tries to stay positive, he meets a darker, doppelganger version of himself that he emphatically rejects.

But the world of his reality won’t have it. Harcourt comes in for a quick chat with Chris before he leaves, and she delivers a line that will foreshadow future events: “No matter how green the grass is over there, you belong here. With us.”

In a panel at Hall H at SDCC, Gunn stressed that the key to Season 2 was character growth. “I like TV shows where the characters don’t just return every season and they’re the same characters,” Gunn shared with the crowd and fans at home. “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 that 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.”

With Gunn’s plans in mind and the craziness of the trailer, Peacemaker Season 2 should once again walk the line between absurd action-comedy antics and multiversal wild west that fans loved in the first season, all while telling a more personal story with heart and soul. Can Peacemaker ever fully accept who he is as a person — or who he wants to be? We’ll find out this August.

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