Here’s how George R. R. Martin influenced the Peacemaker Season 2 finale

The Peacemaker Season 2 climax might set up the future of James Gunn’s DC Universe, but it was influenced by Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin. Spoilers ahead…

It’s been a rough ride for Christopher Smith. He found an alternate universe via the Quantum Unfolding Chamber in which his father and brother were still alive… But it was a timeline where the Nazis won World War II.

It also transpired that in the main universe, Rick Flag Sr. was collaborating with Lex Luthor to use the QUC find a universe they could use as a dimensional prison for metahumans. In the closing moments of Peacemaker Season 2, Flag kidnapped Smith and locked him away in this new world, called Salvation.

This bizarre prison is pulled directly from a comic series called Salvation Run, and the Game of Thrones creator had a hand in its creation.

George R. R. Martin originally pitched Salvation to DC Comics in the 1990s.

DC Comics published the Salvation Run limited series in 2007 as a tie-in to the Final Crisis crossover event from writer Grant Morrison.

Salvation Run revolves around Amanda Waller imprisoning supervillains on a remote planet at the opposite end of the universe following several destructive events on Earth. It’s inclusion will seemingly set up the events of Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow.

But the original comic run was actually pitched by Martin in the 1990s, according to an old blog post from 2007 by the Game of Thrones creator.

He explained that his original idea was titled ‘Exiles in Paradise’ and was meant to be an Elseworlds tale set outside of the main DC Comics continuity, which would allow Martin and his co-writer John J. Miller to do what they liked with as many villains as possible.

The scribe said that he was inspired by what Britain did with its convicts in the 1700s: “When Britain sent convicts to Australia, they were transported ‘for the term of your natural life,’ and that was the premise of our story too. There was no escape.”

“Characters would die, would change, would marry, would have children. Wars would be fought, but eventually, from the chaos and brutality of the early days, a society would be born. Some of the villains would find only death on the new world, but for others it would be a second chance, and they would find redemption.”

DC bought the concept, and Martin and Miller made two separate attempts to get the series off the ground, but with no luck and left the project. Bill Whigham eventually took over and the book turned into an in-universe story instead of existing outside of continuity.

So there you go, if the Game of Thrones creator hadn’t briefly worked with DC all those years ago, Gunn wouldn’t have been able to weave Salvation Run into the Peacemaker Season 2 finale.