NOW ENTERTAINMENT Aug. 17 Month 00--23, 00,2025 2023
Your Weekly TV Entertainment Brought To You By Olean Times Herald & The Bradford Era
John Cena (“Bumblebee,” 2018) returns as DC Comics’ titular jingoist superhero when Season 2 of “Peacemaker” premieres Thursday, Aug. 21, on HBO Max. John Cena and Danielle Brooks in “Peacemaker”
Cover Story Peace in the DCU: Gunn, Safran welcome second season of ‘Peacemaker’ By Dana Simpson As famously sung by great American singer/songwriter Bob Dylan: “The times they are a-changin’.” And while this sentiment continues to be both true and relevant to the world in which we live some 61 years after the song’s release, the same is also true for another (fictional) world: the DC Universe. When American filmmaker James Gunn and British producer Peter Safran (both of “Superman,” 2025) took over as co-chiefs of DC Studios in 2023, they announced that the existing DC Extended Universe would be abandoned in favor of a more streamlined sequence of reboots and reimaginings. Thankfully for fans of the John Cena (“Bumblebee,” 2018) character Peacemaker, the patriot — like DC mainstays Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman — has made the cut. With this in mind, the muscly, no-nonsense hero is back this month
in a big way, more than three years after his titular series premiered Jan. 13, 2022. “Peacemaker” Season 2 premieres Thursday, Aug. 21, on HBO Max, with episodes releasing weekly until the series’ mid-October finale. As originally described by HBO Max (formerly Max) via its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, “’Peacemaker’ follows the explosive escapades of the character that John Cena reprises in the aftermath of James Gunn’s 2021 film ‘The Suicide Squad’ — a compellingly vainglorious man who believes in peace at any cost, no matter how many people he has to kill to get it.” Now, after Peacemaker, aka Christopher Smith, has recovered from his injuries and waged his own brand of justice for eight episodes straight in Season 1, he “discovers an alternate world where life is everything he wishes it could be” in the second season.
But as HBO Max press reports, “this discovery also forces him to face his traumatic past and take the future into his own hands.” As for Cena’s “Peacemaker” co-stars this season, Danielle Brooks (“Orange Is the New Black”) returns as Leota Adebayo, the “daughter of Suicide Squad founder and A.R.G.U.S. leader Amanda Waller” (Viola Davis, “How to Get Away With Murder”), along with fan favorites Freddie Stroma (“Pitch Perfect,” 2012) as Vigilante, Jennifer Holland (“Brightburn,” 2019) as Agent Emilia Harcourt and Steve Agee (“New Girl”) as Agent John Economos. Variety also confirmed that Peacemaker’s racist father, August “Auggie” Smith, aka White Dragon, will return in the form of “The Faculty” (1998) and “Reacher” actor Robert Patrick, who originated the despicable role in the Season 1. Naturally, Peace-
maker’s trusty avian sidekick Eagly, a digitally created eagle voiced by Dee Bradley Baker (“American Dad!”), also returns for Season 2. Additions to the series cast include Tim Meadows (“Mean Girls,” 2004), Sol Rodriguez (“Devious Maids”) and Purge franchise star Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., who has more than likely come to settle the score with Peacemaker (spoilers for 2021’s “The Suicide Squad”), who killed his son, Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman, “For All Mankind”), in Gunn’s canon-establishing “Squad” film. Don’t miss the premiere of “Peacemaker” Season 2 when it comes to HBO Max Thursday, Aug. 21. And for those who simply cannot get enough of the jingoist mercenary, “Peacemaker: The Official Podcast with James Gunn” launched July 24. Listen and subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform.