Peacemaker: Kevin Smith Praises James Gunn After Season Finale, "He Created Something Special"

By Russ Burlingame

The first season of Peacemaker has wrapped, and all along, filmmaker Kevin Smith has been on board. Back in January, he said that he "can't give a show higher praise than this," and that feeling appears to have lasted all the way through to last week's finale. On the new episode of Fatman Beyond, Smith's weekly podcast with co-host Marc Bernardin, the director praised HBO Max's first DCEU series, saying that Gunn had "created something special" after seeing the final installment of the show's first season.

The series spun out of The Suicide Squad, which Smith also liked, and it has a number of his signature flourishes, from sex and pop culture jokes to a fascination with what superheroes are like in bed. Maybe it's not so surprising to see the Clerks and Tusk filmmaker get behind Gunn, a Troma alum who took that success with him to blockbuster heights.

You can see the full episode of Fatman Beyond below.

"I loved it so much that I texted James out of the blue, just to be like 'You are on a streak, you're doing the Lord's work," Smith told Bernardin. "It was just so f---ing beautiful. The last shot of that final episode is so beautifully American, without being dismissive. He doesn't talk down to his audience. It's really a portrait of America -- not the jingoistic America that we all see in Michael Bay movies and s--t, but the real America. People who have f---ed up parents, people who live in trailers, people who have eagles for pets -- the real f---ing America! People who are almost as impossibly big as Reacher!"

After joking a bit about the prospect of a John Cena/Alan Ritchson throwdown, Smith got serious again, saying that he was excited to see what season two had in store. 

"What I was very happy to see was that -- no disrespect to any of the directors from season one, I think all the episodes were fucking wonderful -- but James is going to write and direct every episode. So he's committed to it. He created something special with this show. I'm glad people are catching on, but man, he's got the f---ing cast to pull it off. They're all great, especially Cena. He's funny as f--k but he pulled off the pathos. There's a lot of sadness in that show, and he was able to pull it off."

You can watch the full first season of Peacemaker on HBO Max now.  

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