San Diego Comic Con got a healthy dose of peace on Saturday.
Star John Cena dressed up in full costume as his DC Universe character Peacemaker for the show’s Hall H panel. He was joined by showrunner and DC Studios co-president James Gunn and co-stars Frank Grillo, Jennifer Holland, Frank Grillo, Freddie Stroma, Steve Agee, Sol Rodriguez and Tim Meadows.
The panel kicked off by showing the new Season 2 trailer, which reveals that Cena’s Peacemaker travels through a portal to an alternate dimension where “the grass is greener.” Down on his luck and rejected by Holland’s Emilia Harcourt, Peacemaker runs away to a new universe, which causes inter-dimensional problems. Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr., head of the mysterious DC Universe company A.R.G.U.S., also searches for Peacemaker, who killed his son Rick Flag Jr. (played by Joel Kinnaman in “The Suicide Squad”).
The cast also discussed the “Peacemaker” opening credits, which included a surprising viral dance sequence in Season 1. Gunn said they weren’t “trying to overdo it” with the new Season 2 opening credits.
“One of the miraculous things about the first season’s opening credits is nobody saw it. People couldn’t believe what they were seeing,” he said. “It isn’t trying to one-up the first season. It’s bigger, there’s a different vibe to it. New characters, different dancers.”
One of the new dance moves is an homage to “Dirty Dancing,” Holland revealed.
“We have an amazing choreographer who took James’ idea and vibe he was going for and made something special,” she said. “I had an amazing time doing it. I don’t want to spoil anything but there is one particular thing I requested to the universe: ‘Please allow me to do the lift from “Dirty Dancing.”‘ I got to do a lift and it’s amazing.”
Grillo joked, “The dancing started out as something I reluctantly did and it turned into me being the best dancer on stage.”
“Peacemaker” Season 2 will premiere on HBO Max on Aug. 21 and consist of eight episodes. It’s coming more than three years after the release of Season 1, which was back in early 2022. Between the two seasons of “Peacemaker,” Gunn and Safran were hired as co-CEOs of DC Studios, they rebooted the new DC Universe with “Superman” and “Creature Commandos,” and HBO Max changed its name from simply Max and then back to HBO Max.
Cena stars as the uber-patriotic mercenary Christopher Smith, who debuted as Peacemaker in Gunn’s 2021 DC film “The Suicide Squad.” Peacemaker starts out by working for A.R.G.U.S., the Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans. In Season 1, he investigates Project Butterfly and is tasked to kill off parasitic aliens that have taken over the minds of humans around the world. In the end, he saved the day and even met the old Justice League (comprised of Henry Cavill, Jason Momoa, Gal Gadot and Ezra Miller, who have since lost their roles in the reboot). Most recently, Cena’s Peacemaker had a cameo in Gunn’s “Superman” earlier this month as a guest on a conservative talk show.