Marvel Actually Shot That Major Cameo in DC’s Peacemaker Finale

The Peacemaker Season 1 finale shocked DC fans with some major character cameos that no one would’ve believed could happen. Not only did Peacemaker showrunner James Gunn, thread the needle by getting DC and Warner Bros. to let him use some major franchise characters – and let him use them in pretty R-rated fashion, he also got Marvel to shoot the scene for a DC TV series! In a new post-finale interview for Peacemaker, James Gunn drops the wild story of how he used Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 production to pull off Peacemaker’s big cameo surprise! 

(WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS For the PEACEMAKER FINALE Follow!) 

In “Cow or Never” Peacemaker and his team (friends?) take down the stronghold where the Butterflies are keeping their “cow” – i.e., the giant alien bug that provides their food source. At the end of the battle, the team is left severely wounded; as they limp away from the battlefield the so-called “real” heroes finally show up for the fight: The Justice League! 

James Gunn got to use Zack Snyder’s versions of Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Flash, with the latter two heroes having their actual movie actors (Jason Momoa and Ezra Miller) in the scene. As James Gunn explains to Variety, getting Momoa and Miller in that scene required a little help from Marvel Studios while Gunn was busy shooting Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3:

“I think before we ever shot the show, we talked to Jason about it…. He was cool. So he was pretty much on board from the beginning. And then Ezra I just found out through some common friends liked my movies a lot. And so I asked if he would come in and shoot this scene, and he kindly agreed to do that. Actually, Marvel shot [Ezra] for us, while we’re shooting Guardians Vol. 3.”

As for what motivated Marvel to shoot a scene for DC/Warner Bros.? According to James Gunn, it was a matter of payback: 

“Marvel owed DC,” Gunn explains, “Because the Peacemaker crew shot my screen test for Chukwudi [Iwuji] for “Guardians Vol. 3.” And then we got Ezra with the “Guardians Vol. 3” crew.

What Gunn is referring to is the screen test that Peacemaker star Chukwudi Iwuki (Murn) did for his role in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 – a test that Gunn had to film while shooting Peacemaker. If nothing else, this anecdote only proves how James Gunn has done the impossible task of straddling both the DC and Marvel Universes. 

Peacemaker is now streaming on HBO Max. Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 will be in theaters on May 5, 2023.