James Gunn’s Peacemaker Returns: S2 Trailer and New Cast Revealed

On a scorching hot day in San Diego last weekend, the sun was not shining on Peacemaker this Comic-Con. HBO Max’s DC spinoff series dropped the full-length trailer for Season 2, the Emmy-nominated series helmed by James Gunn. Season 2 picks up five months after the events of The Suicide Squad (2021), and it’s fair to say Gunn and his crew are stepping it up: The new season is bigger, weirder, and even more emotional than Season 1.

The new trailer is the first extensive look at what’s in store for Season 2 of Peacemaker and the Emmy-nominated character of the same name, played by John Cena. From what we saw, expect gunplay, explosions, butt jokes (lots of butt jokes), multiversal shenanigans, and some hard-hitting emotional moments.

Season 1 mostly explored Smith’s mission to take down so-called meta-humans and supervillains as a member of the A.R.G.U.S. team called the Justice Battalion. After barely surviving a mission on Corto Maltese and almost being killed by the experimental Cerberean antibodies that saved him, Peacemaker’s first season followed him as he was recruited by the U.S. government for a new clandestine black ops mission: Project Butterfly. He was assembled with a new team led by Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) and A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economos (Steve Agee), as well as NSA agent Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and recruit Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks).

Project Butterfly was a government-sanctioned covert ops mission to stop an alien invasion by parasitic butterflies that could inhabit and take over human hosts. Season 1 took the team from airport terminals to Death Valley as they uncovered a horrifying conspiracy by the Project Butterfly itself, fought a deadly showdown at a ranch, and ended with the heroes fleeing with their lives, but not before sustaining some serious injuries and emotional trauma.

Season 2 will begin after the team’s successful showdown against the aliens, although it’s possible they’ll see some cameos from characters like members of the Justice League: Superman (Henry Cavill), Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders (Isabela Merced), and Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn) all reprised their roles in Gunn’s Justice League.

Peacemaker returns this August in a much different DC Universe than the first season. While the first season took place in the universe of the DCEU—DC’s movie universe, the second season of Peacemaker will take place in the “newly established” DCU. Gunn is developing a “Gods and Monsters” storytelling franchise for DC, including the Peacemaker series. Gunn has confirmed that the events of Season 1 are still canon, albeit with some small deviations, as Gunn indicated in a Comic-Con teaser.

The returning cast for Season 2 includes the previous main cast: Cena, Brooks, Holland, Agee, and Freddie Stroma as fan-favorite psycho Vigilante. Also returning are Nhut Le as Judomaster and Eagly, Peacemaker’s bald eagle sidekick. New faces for Season 2 include Frank Grillo as Rick Flagg Sr., father to The Suicide Squad’s Rick Flagg (played by Chris Conrad in Gunn’s film), who was killed by Peacemaker in the movie. This season, Flagg is now the director of A.R.G.U.S. and wants revenge on Peacemaker. Tim Meadows, Sol Rodriguez, and Michael Rooker also join the cast as new additions to the team. Agent Langston Fleury (Tim Meadows), Sasha Bordeaux (Sol Rodriguez), and Red St. Wild (Michael Rooker), the “nemesis” to Eagly, respectively.

An official synopsis indicates Chris Smith is struggling not only with the emotional baggage of his bloody past but his desire to be a better man. He wants to become a hero and earn his place among the likes of The Justice League, not by following orders blindly, but by heroic acts and with “peace at all costs” still in his heart.

A teaser trailer released in May teased a new montage of early footage in all its madness. Set to the music of Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord,” the video shows Chris trying to pitch his Justice League audition, a failed and awkward one, naturally. He was shot down by Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders (Isabela Merced), and Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), who all previously reprised their roles in Gunn’s Superman movie.

Other fun character updates revealed in the teaser include Leota Adebayo is “living in the worst level of Grand Theft Auto,” according to A.R.G.U.S. agent Economos. Emilia Harcourt is suffering from “the most intense case of toxic masculinity, by far,” while Vigilante has joined the food service industry.

However, the major big reveal at the end of the trailer? A dimensional portal. After a short montage of intense and outlandish scenes, Chris stumbles through a portal into another dimension. He finds himself face-to-face with an alternate version of himself in this parallel world. Except, in this universe, his doppelganger is already an adored and beloved superhero and true hero. Frustrated with his world, romantic failures, and his tarnished reputation, Chris seriously considers just staying in this universe. But of course, his past has other ideas. Harcourt warns him, “No matter how green the grass is over there, you belong here. With us.”

As Gunn said during the Hall H panel at SDCC, Season 2 of Peacemaker is a story about the evolution of characters. “I like TV shows where the characters don’t just come back every season and they’re the same characters they were last season,” Gunn said during the Comic-Con panel. “I like seeing growth. I like seeing change. And I like sometimes to regress, and see things get worse. And this year, Peacemaker is a different guy. He’s dealing with demons that he uncovered in the first season, and trying to deal with them, and the world is not accepting him the way he is. They’re not accepting him as a hero.”

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