Movies and television adhere to abnormal production schedules. Films are shot up to two years before release date, and episodes of television can be filmed out of subsequent order, meaning it’s nearly impossible to know what is going on in the actual world that might reflect on the nature of the content a storyteller is including. I say all of this to acknowledge that there is no way possible James Gunn and the Peacemaker team could have known that they’d be releasing Episode 5 of the ongoing season of their DCU series Peacemaker in the wake of a tragic assassination of a political figure.
Which is why the opening seconds of the Episode 5 trailer are so jarring, and even insensitive.
Do not watch this trailer if you don’t want to know what happens in Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 4 titled “Need I Say Door.”
Again, I’m making it abundantly clear that Gunn and his team could not have planned this in advance. Peacemaker Season 2 has laid out multiple plot threads leading up to the events shown in the above trailer. At the end of Episode 4, Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) – at the urging of Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) – has lured Chris Smith (John Cena) to a meet up at a public location. It’s a trap, though Harcourt potentially has tipped Smith off to the nature of the rendezvous with the phrase that she used in the text invite.
The episode ends on a cliffhanger, with Peacemaker driving to the meet up.
In the trailer for next week’s episode, included above, we open with Judomaster aiming a high-profile sniper rifle toward Peacemaker, and even get a clip of Chris using a bystander as a shield when shots are fired, and the order is heard to, “Take him out.”
This is where the narrative of Peacemaker happens to be at this point in the season. It’s also horribly associated with the murder of political activist Charlie Kirk in Utah earlier this week, and the ongoing manhunt to identify his killer.
This Peacemaker trailer could not have arrived at a worse time. It’s jarring to see the footage in the opening seconds of the trailer and not immediately flash to the headlines that have dominated American news. And while I can not stress enough that Gunn and his team could have no possible way of knowing that such a tragedy would happen in real life at the exact same time that it’s happening in their program, I do think that someone at HBO Max should have recut this trailer to de-emphasize that part of next week’s episode. And based on the Tweets underneath the trailer, I’m not alone.
Some are going so far as to say that next week’s Peacemaker episode should be censored. I do not agree. The footage of Judomaster attempting to take out Peacemaker makes complete sense in the narrative of the story being told in Season 2, and it’s just a matter of the timing being as unfortunate as possible. I’m generally not even a proponent of altering or editing footage to reflect the “temperature” of the culture, because I think it’s too difficult to try and please every audience member. In a show like Peacemaker, you are bound to offend someone.
But I’d be lying if I said that trailer opening didn’t catch me off guard, and I understand the people underneath the social media post arguing against its insensitivity. A high-profile figure has been killed, and their assassin is still on the run. That trailer probably should have been recut.
Peacemaker Season 2 will continue next Thursday, with the last episode that press was shown for the purpose of interviews. After that, we have three episodes of unknown, which James Gunn has teased as some of the craziest stuff he’s offered. Are you still watching this season? What do you think of the story so far?
Release Date
January 13, 2022
Network
HBO Max, Max
John Cena
Christopher Smith / Peacemaker
Danielle Brooks
Leota Adebayo