Peacemaker’s Alternate Universe Self Is a Real Hero. He’s Not.

HBO Max made a splash at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend by unveiling the first official trailer for the second season of Peacemaker, James Gunn’s Emmy-nominated DC spinoff series. The full trailer gives the first extended look at what’s in store for John Cena’s Christopher Smith, AKA Peacemaker, and let’s just say, bigger, weirder, and more emotional is the name of the game this go-round.

Peacemaker’s eight-episode first season, which takes place five months after the events of The Suicide Squad (2021), saw Smith just barely survive a near-fatal gunshot wound. Brought back into the fold of the U.S. government, he was recruited for an “off the books” government mission, codenamed “Project Butterfly,” alongside a new team led by Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) and supported by A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economos (Steve Agee), NSA agent Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), and brand recruit Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks).

Project Butterfly soon proves to be much, much more than a typical clandestine government operation, however. Tasked with the formidable mission of stopping an alien species that have taken to invading Earth by inhabiting and controlling human hosts in the form of parasitic butterflies, the ragtag crew manages to take down the alien invaders in a bloody showdown on a ranch in the season finale, but they all escape with their lives—and their souls—only just.

Peacemaker returns this August in a very different DC Universe than the series started in. Season 1 was part of the DCEU, even though that shared universe is now defunct; Season 2 now unfolds in the newly introduced DCU as announced by Gunn himself as part of his “Gods and Monsters” slate of stories. Gunn, however, has confirmed that any references to previous events that took place in Season 1—besides a few cameo spots from Justice League members that Gunn says he’s currently in talks with—are still canon.

Cast returning for Season 2 include Cena, Brooks, Holland, Agee, and Freddie Stroma as the fan-favorite villain-with-a-heart-of-gold Vigilante. Other familiar faces include Nhut Le as Judomaster, and Eagly, the devoted bald eagle sidekick of Peacemaker, who has more than once shown the ability to understand Chris’s gruff, nonstop talking. Robert Patrick, who played Peacemaker’s long-dead father, Auggie Smith, is also back, and as Gunn put it in a statement, “Auggie’s influence is still felt this season.” Frank Grillo, meanwhile, will join the cast this season as Rick Flagg Sr., father of the late Rick Flagg, who was killed by Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad. Flagg is now the director of A.R.G.U.S., and Peacemaker’s mission to Project Butterfly was done in no small part to help Flagg exact his revenge. Other notable additions for this new season include Tim Meadows as agent Langston Fleury, Sol Rodriguez as Sasha Bordeaux, and the incomparable Michael Rooker as Red St. Wild, who Gunn described as “Eagly’s nemesis.”

In the official synopsis, Peacemaker’s second season appears to see Chris Smith struggling to come to terms with both the emotional aftermath of his violent past and his desire to be a better person. In Season 1, Peacemaker sought peace by any means necessary. This season, he’s still seeking peace—but wants to earn it through heroism instead of an unquestioning obedience to a cause.

A teaser trailer released in May was the first official taste of the madness to come. Set to the tune of Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord,” the brief footage offers a few additional looks at the insanity and action that awaits us, but one standout moment in the teaser, in particular, set things up: Chris’s failed attempt to join the Justice League—featuring Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders (Isabela Merced), and Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), all reprising their roles from Gunn’s Superman—naturally ends with Chris’s clumsy hero pitch getting shot down.

The teaser also gives a few other fun character updates, including Adebayo “living in the worst level of Grand Theft Auto,” per Economos; Harcourt suffering from “a particularly severe form of toxic masculinity”; and Vigilante having been reduced to the food service industry.

The trailer’s most shocking reveal, however, came in the form of a dimensional portal. Peacemaker himself accidentally stumbles through one, only to find an alternate universe where he meets another version of himself. In this new dimension, he’s already beloved and celebrated. Sick of being a nobody, even being dumped by the woman of his dreams in his universe, the idea of switching places with his alternate self is almost too good to pass up for Peacemaker. Predictably, though, his past has other ideas. A solemn Harcourt brings Peacemaker back down to Earth, so to speak, with a weighted line: “No matter how green the grass is over there, you belong here. With us.”

James Gunn himself, who made an appearance to speak on the Hall H panel at SDCC, promised that Season 2 is going to see the character grow in new and meaningful ways. “I like TV shows where the characters don’t just return every season and they’re the same characters, same outfits, same haircut,” Gunn said. “I want to see growth. I want to see change—and sometimes regression. Peacemaker is a different guy this year. He’s dealing with the demons he uncovered from the first season and trying to deal with them, and the world is not accepting him the way he is. They aren’t accepting him as a hero.”

Season 2 of Peacemaker, which premieres August 21, 2025, exclusively on HBO Max, is bound to both satisfy fans of over-the-top action and larger-than-life humor as much as it tells new, more meaningful stories about the beloved antihero’s desire for change in a multiversal way.