Peacemaker S2 Trailer Drops at Comic-Con: Here’s What We Know

In a star-studded presentation at San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday, HBO Max unveiled the official full-length trailer for Season 2 of Peacemaker, the Emmy-nominated DC spinoff series from James Gunn. The trailer, the first extended look at what to expect when Peacemaker returns this summer, suggests that Season 2 will be bigger, weirder, and more emotional.

The first season of Peacemaker, which launched on HBO Max in January 2022, was set five months after the events of The Suicide Squad (2021) on Corto Maltese. Shot point-blank in the head in the final moments of the film, Peacemaker (played by John Cena) barely survived. Recruited by the U.S. government and a new team of fellow supers from around the world and assembled by Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) with the help of A.R.G.U.S. agent John Economos (Steve Agee), NSA agent Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), and new operative Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), Smith is given a new mission, codenamed “Project Butterfly,” in which the team must travel to various places across the globe to stop an alien species and prevent it from invading Earth.

Project Butterfly, however, turned out to be anything but a standard government-run-of-the-mill program. The group soon learned that their new mission was to put a stop to the parasitic, extra-terrestrial butterflies that had arrived on Earth to possess human hosts. The season ended with the ragtag band of misfits defeating the insects and surviving a bloody showdown at a ranch in the dead of night, all with a near-perfect body count—and some lasting injuries and emotional trauma.

Peacemaker now returns in a significantly altered DC Universe. While Season 1 of Peacemaker fit within the former DCEU, the second season takes place in the newly minted DCU, which Gunn himself introduced as part of his own “Gods and Monsters” universe this past spring. However, Gunn has confirmed that even in this new iteration, previous events still stand, and the Peacemaker he’s creating now is canon (sans a few cameos from Justice League members in their standalone films).

The returning cast includes Cena, Brooks, Holland, Agee, and Freddie Stroma as fan-favorite psychopath Vigilante. Nhut Le also returns as Judomaster, as does Eagly, Peacemaker’s devoted bald eagle. Robert Patrick also returns as Peacemaker’s late father, Auggie Smith. As for new additions, Frank Grillo is on board as Rick Flagg Sr., the father of the late Rick Flagg, killed by Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad. Grillo’s Flagg is now in charge of A.R.G.U.S. and has a personal score to settle. Other new additions include Tim Meadows as agent Langston Fleury, Sol Rodriguez as Sasha Bordeaux, and Michael Rooker as Red St. Wild, who is described as Eagly’s “nemesis.”

Officially, Season 2 is described as “following the emotional consequences of his past and new motivations to try to be a better man, Chris Smith is still out for peace at any cost, but now wants to earn it by being a hero, not a lackey.” Or in other words, he wants to do the right thing, but still, there’s probably going to be blood.

A previous teaser trailer released in May offered a first look at the insanity and intensity that Season 2 will bring. Filmed to the tune of Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord,” the minute-long teaser had Cena’s Chris Smith going on a failed audition to be on the Justice League, which includes 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, his pitch to join the team flops miserably.

The teaser also offered some character updates that had fans cracking up. According to Economos, Adebayo is “living in the worst level of Grand Theft Auto.” Meanwhile, Harcourt “contracted a particularly severe form of toxic masculinity,” while Vigilante landed a job in food service.

The biggest surprise of the trailer, though, was the appearance of a dimensional portal. In a wild revelation, Chris runs into an alternate dimension and meets another version of himself, a version that has already been accepted and is a beloved true hero in the eyes of the world. Annoyed with his place in the world and his romantic failure, he entertains the idea of staying. But as we all know, He can never outrun his past. Harcourt says it best in a line that’s equal parts ominous and moving: “No matter how green the grass is over there, you belong here. With us.”

In a panel held in Hall H at SDCC, Gunn himself noted that Season 2 is all about Peacemaker evolving as a character. “I like TV shows where the characters don’t just come back every year, and they’re the same characters,” 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 that he unearthed from last year, and now trying to figure out how to deal with them, and the world is not accepting him the way he is. They’re not accepting him as a hero.”

Season 2 of Peacemaker premieres August 21, 2025, exclusively on HBO Max.