As if one thought that his and Peter Safran’s upcoming DC Studios plans couldn’t get any more confusing after such hits as announcing his reboot plans before the former DCEU had officially concluded and flip-flopping on the potential return of numerous ‘Snyderverse’ heroes, James Gunn has confirmed that when it comes to his HBO series Peacemaker, only its second season will be canon to his new cinematic universe.
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The DC Studios co-head confirmed his bizarre series continuity plans on the morning of March 10th amidst a larger discussion of his upcoming DC TV plans.
Kicking things off was Gunn himself who, in retweeting a piece from Cosmic Book News – as shared by his favorite Threads news source, @jamesgunnnews – regarding the recent confirmation given by his wife, series Emilia Harcourt actress Jennifer Holland, that the HBO spin-off’s second season would begin shooting sometime this summer, playfully but truthfully confirmed, “The source is kind of iffy [referring to Holland] but this is true.”
“John Cena shared this on Howard Stern last week,” he added. “To answer your follow-up questions: yes, we’ll be shooting Superman & Peacemaker simultaneously; yes, I’ve written all the episodes; but, no, in the interest of getting the show out there I won’t be able to direct them all (only some); & yes, [the Amanda Waller solo series] Waller’s still happening & Jeremy & Christal are hard at work writing great stuff, but the schedule was impacted by the strikes so it’ll come after Peacemaker.”
In light of this update, fellow Threads user @caiovasantos asked the filmmaker, “Interesting – Originally you said Waller was Peacemaker Season 1.5. Is this still true and Waller will be some kind of prequel or will [it] now take place after the events of S2 of Peacemaker?”, to which he clarified, “Everything in Waller will take place after Peacemaker.”
Pressed further by both @ech0es.act.3 and @blue8881blue if “Everything in Peacemaker takes place after Superman, including Season One?”, Gunn then revealed that this would be the case for Season Two of the John Cena-led series, “Season one isn’t canon, but no.”
[Note: According to @blue8881blue, the deleted post in the above screenshot saw Gunn affirm that “everything in Peacemaker would take place after Superman,” and that “he deleted to reiterate he was only referring to Season Two because Season One is not canon (but events similar must have happened before Superman).” Gunn would later reiterate this point in a follow-up post, asserting “Answering this again to be clear: Peacemaker Season 2 will take place after the events in Superman.”]
Notably, while this is the first time that Gunn has confirmed that Peacemaker Season One has officially been rendered non-canon, the DC Studios co-head confirmed in October 2023 that Season Two would both “take place in the new DCU” and “address” the continuity shift.
However, as of writing, it remains unknown just how the series will go about handling the change – though given its more ‘light-hearted’ tone, it’s likely that however it’s done will be somewhat tongue-in-cheek and possibly even fourth-wall breaking.
So, for those keeping score at home, at current Gunn’s DC Studios plans will see a shared universe composed of a new continuity of interconnected films and television series – both animated and live-action – where only one season of a two-season-thus-far series is canon and its incarnation of Batman and Joker are completely separate from those seen in the concurrently-ongoing Matt Reeve’s The Batman line and Todd Phillips’ Joker duology – oh, and eventually video games are supposed to tie-in to this roadmap as well.
If you’re confused as to how anyone, least of all general movie going audiences, are supposed to keep track of all this and stay invested, rest assured that you’re not alone.
