James Gunn wants to make one thing clear in Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 1: it is not for kids, and if you don’t believe him, there’s one scene that proves he’s right.
John Cena’s antihero made a brief cameo in Superman, appearing on a talk show to criticize the Man of Steel’s do-gooder personality. “He thinks he’s better than everybody else… it kinda seems like you’re trying to make the guys who are a little edgier than you look like jerks,” he said.
Unlike the Justice League, Jared Leto’s Joker, and other defunct DCEU characters, Peacemaker is at the forefront of Gunn’s DCU, with Season 2 directly following Superman (it even stars Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern and Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl).
However, just because millions of families went to cinemas this summer to watch Superman does not mean they should be streaming Peacemaker when it premieres on HBO Max.
Peacemaker Season 2 Episode 1 has an explicit scene that’s not for kids
To be clear, Peacemaker Season 1 wasn’t for kids either. It included nudity, gory violence, swearing, and other adult content, and if anything, Season 2 is going to take things to another level.
Speaking to Rainn Wilson as part of an Interview Magazine feature, Gunn was asked how he got HBO to approve a “full-on orgy with dancing d*cks” in the second season’s opening episode.
“HBO, they’ve always kind of let us do what we wanted. Remember, HBO has had a lot of nudity in their shows. They’re not unknown to nudity,” Gunn said, but Wilson pointed out that it’s not like more typical sex scenes you’d see in other shows.
“Yeah, there’s some little penises dancing around. Listen, we wanted to make it real. [Laughs] I’m not worried about the use of the C word,” Gunn continued.
“The time where that’s been crazy has kind of come and gone as far as I can tell. But the orgy in the first episode, I think we’re just letting people know, ‘Hey, this is a wild ride that you’re in for the whole season and this is the kind of craziness you’re going to see.’
“We’re trying to warn people as much as possible when they see the episode that although this is a follow-up to Superman, it is definitely not for children.”
During a roundtable discussion (via Nerds of Color), Gunn explained why he thinks it’s “important” and “exciting to be able to tell stories for different groups of people.”
“Superman is for everyone. Peacemaker is for an adult audience, like that’s who it’s created for. Supergirl, everyone. We have the Krypto shorts, which are for children. You know, we have Clayface, which is an R-rated horror film. So I like the idea of really telling different types of stories – truly different types of stories – within this singular universe,” he said.
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