Episode 6 of Peacemaker Season 2, “Ignorance Is Chris,” was one for the books. Not only did it confirm that the alternate reality John Cena’s Chris Smith has been traveling to is a Nazi-dominated America, but it also dropped the biggest cameo of the season: Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. The episode sees Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) cutting a deal at Belle Reve that could alter the entire future of the DCU, with series creator James Gunn calling the moment “a really important moment for the entire DCU” on Peacemaker: The Official Podcast With James Gunn.

Following the episode, Gunn sat down with Collider to unpack the cameos, reveals, and the future of both Peacemaker and Man of Tomorrow, the upcoming Superman sequel. While the current season still has two episodes left, Gunn was careful not to overpromise when asked if Season 3 was in development. However, he did make sure to point out that this would not be the end of the journey for these characters, even if HBO doesn’t get another 10 episodes out of him:

“It is not right now. I think that people should— that doesn’t mean there aren’t plans for these characters, but it’s not necessarily Season 3 of Peacemaker. And then people should watch Episode 8 to see what happens, because maybe some of your questions will be answered in that episode by itself.”

Why Is ‘Peacemaker’ Season 2 Set in Nazi America?

Gunn also addressed the reveal of Chris Smith’s alternate world, which fans had been theorizing about online for weeks. Inspired partly by Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle, the twist was designed to reflect Chris’ inner struggles:

“Instead, we’re constantly trying to change that stuff, and that’s Christopher Smith. He’s unhappy with the fact that he hasn’t been accepted as a hero. He’s unhappy that his father was abusive and unkind. He’s unhappy that his brother is dead… So he finds another world in which the girl he loves fawns over him, and his brother is alive, and his father is kind, and he’s a hero. But like anything, there’s a darkness to it all. There’s something that he’s not seeing. … I mean, the price in this case is Nazi America. That’s what the price of all this happiness was on the show.”

New episodes of Peacemaker premiere Thursdays on HBO Max, with Man of Tomorrow already looming large over the series’ future.

peacemaker-season-2-poster-2.jpg

Release Date

January 13, 2022

Network

HBO Max, Max