Peacemaker Season 2 is about to drop, and with the series crossing over with multiple movies and TV shows, here’s what you need to watch to get up to speed.
Season 1 of Peacemaker is one of the best superhero shows in TV history, delivering shock, thrills, drama, and laughs in a series that smartly sends up the genre.
Season 2 is just as good, and we wrote in our 4-star Peacemaker review that the first five episodes “tell a touching tale which lacks the potentially world-ending stakes of its predecessor, but makes up for that with an emotionally charged tale that acts as the DCU’s answer to Sliding Doors.”
But the new story requires knowledge of the previous series, as well as multiple films in the DC universe, so here’s all the homework required in advance of those new instalments.
Peacemaker Season 1
This is an obvious one, but you don’t need to watch Peacemaker Season 1 for the overarching storyline – which concerns ‘Butterflies’ – as they don’t factor into Season 2.
Rather, it’s required viewing due to the press conference that Leota Adebayo calls at the end of the series.
Peacemaker and Vigilante’s names are cleared, while Adebayo exposes Project Butterfly as “part of a black ops programme known as Task Force X, where convicted criminals are undertaking dangerous missions for the United States in exchange for time off their sentences.”
She also reveals that her mother Amanda Waller is the brains behind the operation, and calls for an investigation into “inhumane abuses of power.”
Her actions help to break up the Peacemaker Season 1 crew, and have far-reaching consequences for Season 2.
The Suicide Squad
James Gunn’s 2021 take on The Suicide Squad introduced live-action Peacemaker to the world, which is why you need to watch the movie.
But there’s also a specific act of violence that casts a shadow over the new series – Peacemaker killing Rick Flag Jr. in cold blood.
That’s because in Season 2, Rick Flag Sr. is now running A.R.G.U.S., and he’s none-too-happy with Chris Smith, meaning revenge is on the cards.
As Gunn explained at Comic-Con: “This is a new Peacemaker who is struggling to try to be the best person he can be. Often failing. But really trying his best to do that, then all of a sudden his past won’t let him go, whether it’s his relationship with his father who is now gone, or his relationship with Rick Flag Jr.’s dad.”
Creature Commandos
Rick Flag Sr. is the leader of the Creature Commandos in the animated series of the same name, making the show a must-watch for those wanting to be fully caught up.
Like the aforementioned Suicide Squad, the title characters are a black ops team assembled by Amanda Waller, and known by the codename Task Force M.
Flag Sr. is voiced by Frank Grillo in the series, who also plays the character in Season 2 of Peacemaker, while Viola Davis (Amanda Waller) and Steven Agee (John Economos) also voice their live-action characters.
Superman
Peacemaker made a hilarious cameo in Superman this summer, bad-mouthing the Man of Steel on a right-wing TV talk show by saying, “Guys like this, they’ve always got a whole bunch of dark, ugly secrets. He thinks he’s better than everybody else.”
The movie also sets up a Justice League that consists of Mr. Terrific, Hawkgirl, and the Guy Gardner Green Lantern.
James Gunn has already revealed that Chris Smith’s desire to be part of that crew factors into Peacemaker Season 2, saying: “He really wants to get in with the Justice Gang. So he’s not going to say any more mean things about Superman, knowing they’re his pals.”
The Gang itself also appear in the first episode via a very funny cameo, as well as a wild retcon of Season 1 that does the DCEU dirty.
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