Note: This story contains spoilers from “Peacemaker” Season 2, Episode 6.
“Peacemaker” creator James Gunn heaped praise and excitement on Season 2, Episode 6 since before the HBO Max series returned. And his favorite moment from the eventful episode is not what you’d expect.
After a ton of speculation throughout the season, it was officially confirmed in Episode 6, titled “Ignorance Is Chris,” that the seemingly idyllic dimension Peacemaker (John Cena) decided to retreat to and live a new life with his (alive) father and brother is actually run by Nazis. It’s Earth-X — which many fans had predicted but Episode 6 solidified.
On top of that, there was a major cameo from this summer’s “Superman.” It wasn’t the Man of Steel himself, it wasn’t Mr. Terrific, but instead a now incarcerated Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) headed off to Belle Reve prison to recruit the genius billionaire to help track down Peacemaker and get a shot at redemption — which could lead into why he and Superman seem to be teaming up in Gunn’s 2027 sequel “Man of Tomorrow.”
That’s a lot to pack in to one episode and Gunn told TheWrap that neither of those moments are the reason he was so excited and secretive about Episode 6 in particular.
Below, Gunn breaks down what that moment was along with handling the Earth-X reveal and pulling off the Lex Luthor cameo.
TheWrap: When we talked during the pre-season junket, you’d mentioned that this episode in particular was one of your favorite things you had worked on. There’s a lot going on in these 38 minutes, I’m curious if there was one specific beat that had you so excited for Episode 6?
It’s not what anybody thinks. It’s the moment between Harcourt and Peacemaker. It’s that little run where he tells her that he loves her, and she says she’s a nightmare, and then he says, “I still love you.” That really is the stuff I like. And then just the complexity of their relationship, how much he loves her, how raw John Cena’s his performance is in that, how amazing Jen is in that sequence. How she feels as if she’s being emotionally blackmailed by his love in a way.
She wants him to come back to Earth, and she needs him so badly. It’s just a very real human, complex relationship that goes beyond what I think people expect from a superhero show.
Was that scene Harcourt kind of being honest with Chris for the first time?
I think it’s the most honest that we’ve seen Harcourt by far up through the season. I think that we see that she has her own demons. Listen, that moment where she says she goes to bars and beats people up — that’s an incredibly vulnerable place compared to where she was in Episode 2, where she says that would be f–king stupid, right? She outright lies about it compared to what she does later.
We see her breaking down a little bit. And man, the day I shot that scene, I was so, so happy about John, about Jen, about Chris McGuire, who did all the camera work on that scene, and Kent and the other, the other guys that did the camera work, and then Sam, the DP, so it was just really came together.
We come into it with the, this just great performance by John, but really by Jen in the beginning. She’s like, ‘that makes me f–king – that hurts my feelings to be honest.’ And she’s right! She’s right! I love directing action scenes, but to really get a meaty scene like that, with two actors fully going at it was a delight.
What went into bringing Nicholas Hoult in? It probably helped you were pulling some double duty shooting “Superman” at the same time.
It definitely helped. I shot three scenes while we were shooting “Superman.” There was the scene with the Justice Gang; I shot that on a Saturday. The scene with Lex, I shot that on half a day on Saturday. And then there’s a scene in Episode 8 that I shot for half a day on Saturday so that we could utilize various actors at the same time.
Nick was just stoked. He was so excited when I asked him to do it. In fact, David Corenswet was very jealous, wondering why he couldn’t. Because really the “Superman” cast are all huge “Peacemaker” fans.
Really was just asking Nick to do it. It has important ramifications — his relationship with Rick Flag is something that’s important to “Man of Tomorrow.” And it was fun seeing Nick in sort of a different light, “Peacemaker’s” more naturalistic than “Superman.” Him coming into that dialogue, the character shifted, not only because of what he’s been through — which is being beaten up by a super dog and sent to prison for the rest your life — but also because of this subtle tonal differences in the show compared to the movie.
Why does Flag choose to turn to Lex over someone like Mr. Terrific?
First of all, Flag knows Lex. We don’t know what Flag’s relationship is like, if any, with Terrific. Flag knows Lex and has known him for a long time. They’ve worked together. He’s sold weapons and he knew him from that. Also as smart as Terrific is he is not the two people that are the most knowledgeable about dimensional portals – which are Lex and Sydney Happersen. So he definitely would go to Lex over Terrific.
On top of everything else, we get the reveal that this alternate dimension is Earth-X. Danielle really carries that reveal and in a year of great horror movies and TV hearing “one got out” was bone chilling.
Especially coming from a guy who we’ve come to kind of love. David Denman’s so underrated. Like, he’s so good in that scene.
What went into shooting that day? What kind of conversations were you having with Danielle?
It’s white people as zombies. The first step was simply writing it, and then giving it to Danielle, and then talking about what she was going to be doing, and how I saw it, asking her if she had any issues with it. Did she foresee any problems with it? Because you want to be sensitive around that kind of thing, being a white man who’s writing this stuff. You got to be sensitive to people and how they perceive things with no judgments attached to that. I was really sensitive about it. She was just excited to do it. Probably not excited after we shot her having to run for three hours that day — which by the way was a particularly hot day.
I had to sit down and we talked to the crew, because we’re shooting something that, again, is sensitive stuff. So we had to talk to the crew beforehand. We weren’t just entering this stuff like it’s a silly story. It’s not the same as shooting Season One with, you know, butterfly people trying to kill you. This was a different situation.
“Peacemaker” Season 2 releases new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.
