Peacemaker is James Gunn’s irreverent, character-first DC series starring John Cena as Christopher Smith, a helmeted crusader who loves peace so much he’s willing to do spectacularly dumb, occasionally noble things in its name. Spun out of The Suicide Squad but very much its own beast, the show blends giddy, hard-R comedy with bruised-heart sincerity, the kind that sneaks up on you between exploding appliances and wildly inappropriate one-liners. It’s a vibe: gleeful, gross, and unexpectedly tender, anchored by Cena’s deadpan physicality and a supporting cast that treats banter like a blood sport.
Season 1 ropes Peacemaker back into black-ops duty to battle parasitic “butterflies,” and then immediately complicates the mission with friendship drama, father wounds, and a slow-motion tussle with the very idea of masculinity he’s been cosplaying. Under the blood-splatter and the riff-heavy soundtrack, the series pokes at guilt, accountability, and the possibility that a lifelong screw-up can learn better habits. Gunn’s needle-drops do heavy lifting here—Wig Wam’s “Do Ya Wanna Taste It” and that deliriously earnest opening dance cement the show’s tonal north star—while the ensemble chemistry makes even the quiet scenes crackle.
Continuity-wise, the series sits inside the DC sandbox without letting canon choke the fun. It nods to larger-universe happenings and celebrity capes, but it never loses sight of Christopher Smith’s messy growth, which means you can jump in cold and still catch the joke. Longtime fans get winks, newcomers get a clean on-ramp, and everyone gets Eagly stealing scenes like a feathery pickpocket.
Season 2, hits streaming on HBO Max this summer. Story-wise, you can bank on season 2 wrestling with the fallout from the butterfly mission and the shrapnel lodged in Peacemaker’s conscience. Season 1 forced him to interrogate his father’s legacy and his own warped code, and the finale cracked open a path toward change without handing him a redemption trophy. Expect the new episodes to keep that thread taut, prodding him with fresh threats and inconvenient truths while letting the team evolve from punchline factory into chosen family. All of this will live inside Gunn’s broader DC plans, but the compass remains character-first; the show’s magic trick is making universe-scale implications feel personal, then letting a well-timed joke pop the tension.
In short, Peacemaker season 2 is poised to double down on the very things that made the first run a blast: shameless humor, bruised hearts, meticulously chosen bangers, and a lead who keeps stumbling toward decency with a bird on his shoulder and a target on his back.