This text accommodates spoilers for “Peacemaker” season 2, episode 1, “The Ties That Grind.”
Following up on an acclaimed superhero present’s first season is one factor, however “Peacemaker” season 2 additionally has to deal with a transfer to a brand new cinematic universe. “Peacemaker” season 1 stood on the outskirts of Zack Snyder’s DC Prolonged Universe (DCEU), whereas season 2 takes the motion to James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe (DCU). Which means Gunn needed to discover a technique to each recapture the magic of the primary season and join the present to his grand imaginative and prescient.
Season 2 wastes no time. Instantly, its first episode, “The Ties That Grind,” hoists the viewer into the DCU model of season 1’s occasions by holding all the pieces else intact however changing all traces of the DCEU’s Justice League with the Justice Gang, Maxwell Lord’s (Sean Gunn) comparatively amoral superhero group from “Superman.” The present takes this thus far that it replaces the “Peacemaker” season 1 finale’s huge Justice League cameo scene with a near-identical one that includes the Justice Gang as an alternative. This rebooted copy is so devoted that it replaces the fish banter between Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) with an identical interplay between Man Gardner (Nathan Fillion) and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), who has the time of her life studying about Peacemaker’s (John Cena) insistence that Man is an emetophile.
Although Hawkgirl and Man are the one characters whose faces we truly see, there are literally 5 superheroes within the huge cameo shot. Other than the third official Justice Gang member, Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), this model of the staff options two powerhouse additions: Superman and Supergirl. This makes the staff so absurdly highly effective that it is not precisely stunning to see that Peacemaker’s personal audition later within the episode is a strong failure.
So, are Superman and Supergirl formally within the Justice Gang or what?
Warner Bros.
“Peacemaker” season 1’s unique huge cameo scene was an enormous factor that Marvel truly helped Gunn pull off whereas the director was nonetheless making “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” There, solely 4 members of the Justice League had been current — Aquaman, The Flash, Surprise Lady, and Superman, with the latter two performed by physique doubles as an alternative of their DCEU actors, Gal Gadot and Henry Cavill.
Due to how outstanding Superman’s silhouette is within the season 1 group shot, it is comprehensible that Gunn selected to incorporate the DCU model of the character. Nonetheless, since each Superman and Supergirl (performed in “Superman” by David Corenswet and Milly Alcock, respectively) are right here, it is not only a case of “stick 4 heroes there to duplicate the shot.” As an alternative, the scene is closely coded like each Kryptonians are precise members of the Justice Gang. Admittedly, we already know that Superman’s not a card-carrying member, courtesy of Gunn answering fan questions on Threads:
“You’d need to ask how snug Superman could be in a staff financed by one of many world’s largest companies — a staff that additionally promotes that company.
Issues aren’t fairly so simple as that, nevertheless. In one other Threads reply, Gunn famous that Superman hangs round with the Justice Gang sufficient to depend as a de facto member … which additionally appears to be the case with Alcock’s Supergirl, primarily based on the “Peacemaker” scene. Due to this, they won’t be official members, however they look like close-knit sufficient that the Justice Gang can typically depend on their help. As Gunn put it:
“Yeah, he is sort of a staff member. However he is an impartial man, our Clark.”
New episodes of “Peacemaker” season 2 premiere Thursdays on HBO Max.
