James Gunn’s new DC Universe is keeping one superhero in the quiver for now. The Peacemaker series creator and DC Studios co-chief has methodically worked his way through the many references to the old DC Extended Universe in the eight-episode first season of The Suicide Squad spinoff, which name-dropped Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Aquaman — heroes who teamed up to form the Justice League in the former canon. But in the world of Creature Commandos, Superman, and Peacemaker, the corporate-sponsored Justice Gang is the foremost super-group.
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That means that the Justice League cameo in the 2022 season finale of Peacemaker isn’t canon, but what about Green Arrow? The episode, titled “It’s Cow or Never,” calls out the Emerald Archer when Chris Smith (John Cena) makes a crass remark about alleged Brony Oliver Queen. John Economos (Steve Agee) then corroborates the statement as “the first thing he’s said that’s real,” referring to Peacemaker’s habit of making slanderous claims about other superheroes.
“Is Green Arrow canon? I don’t know. I’m not willing to say yet,” Gunn said on the eighth episode of Peacemaker: The Official Podcast. “We don’t really know.”
“We don’t have Green Arrow as part of our system right now,” Gunn continued, referring to the first phase of the DCU slate, which Gunn and DC Studios co-chief Peter Safran are calling “Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters.” “Maybe Green Arrow exists, maybe he doesn’t, I’m not sure. So that’s a ‘maybe.’”
While Schrödinger’s Green Arrow may or may not exist in the new DCU, Gunn has a much more definitive answer about the Justice League.
“We find out in Superman — hopefully you’ve seen that by now, everyone — there’s a group called the Justice Gang. They’re sort of a nascent Justice League,” Gunn said of the metahuman team that includes Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), and Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan). “They’re run by LordTech Corporation, and they’re not yet the Justice League — if they ever do become, in fact, the Justice League.”
Fillion’s Green Lantern and Merced’s Hawkgirl will return in Peacemaker, accompanied by the Justice Gang’s billionaire backer, tech mogul Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn). In season 2, “Peacemaker discovers an alternate world where life is everything he wishes it could be. But this discovery also forces him to face his traumatic past and take the future into his own hands.”
John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma, Steve Agee, and Robert Patrick return for season two, joined by new cast members Frank Grillo, David Denman, Sol Rodríguez, and Tim Meadows. Peacemaker season 2 premieres August 21 on HBO Max.
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Image courtesy of Focus Features.
