James Gunn On ‘Peacemaker' Season 2, DCU And Valuable Start At Troma

Forbes

20 hours ago

Following a super reception in theaters for Superman, James Gunn isn't wasting any time in Peacemaker Season 2 by building out the new DC Universe.
As such, a pair of integral characters to the plot of Superman are featured in not only the Season 1 recap ahead of Peacemaker Season 2, but also alongside another Superman cast member early in the first episode.
'We had to address the elephant in the room, which was the fact that last season ended with Peacemaker telling the Justice League to F off, but that is not the reality that he lives in,' Gunn said in a recent Zoom conversation. 'That's really the one thing from Season 1 that doesn't exist and so, we needed to answer that in this season and that's what we did.'
Picking up not long after the events of Superman, Peacemaker Season 2 finds his former Black Ops team at A.R.G.U.S. in ruins. Agents Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) — the daughter of ex-A.R.G.U.S. Director Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) — are both out of work, while Adrian Chase/Vigilante is still at work as a busboy.
As for the remainder of the group, Agent John Economos (Steve Agee) career is hanging by a thread at A.R.G.U.S., which has been taken over by Rick Flagg Sr. (Frank Grillo). Economos learns from Rick Flagg Sr. off the bat that he has it in for Peacemaker/Chris Smith (John Cena) after Peacemaker killed his son, Rick Flagg Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) on the island of Corto Maltese during the events of 2021's The Suicide Squad.
Chris, meanwhile, is leading a troubled existence after Rick Flagg Jr.'s death, a failed attempt at a relationship with Harcourt and the trauma of killing his father, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick), in Season 1. Also prying into Chris' psyche is the tragic death of his brother, Keith, while they were both youths.
Things get strange for Chris, though, when he enters a portal to an alternate dimension in his father's house — where the lines between his tragic reality and a perfect existence in a parallel universe become blurred.
Peacemaker Season 2 premieres Thursday on HBO on cable and HBO Max simultaneously.
James Gunn Is Forever Grateful To Troma Entertainment For Launching His Career
While James Gunn enters Peacemaker Season 2 with a pedigree that includes the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy for Marvel Studios and The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker Season 1 and Superman for DC, he remains indebted to the invaluable experience he got at Troma Entertainment.
Gunn, after all, got his start in the mid-1990s at Troma, the indie studio behind the cult horror comedy The Toxic Avenger and several other low-budget classics.
Gunn's first film credit came as a screenwriter for director and Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman for the 1996 romantic comedy satire Tromeo and Juliet. As such, Gunn said his work at Troma created a worldview of the film industry that remains embedded to this day in his creative DNA.
'Troma was my film school. I went to Troma in my 20s,' Gunn said. 'Most people who go to film school get a very limited view of what the film industry is. They learn about how to write a screenplay, which is great, and learn about how not to cross the line, which they still don't ever do."
And while it may take film school students years to break into the business — if ever — Gunn said his screenplay for Tromeo and Juliet was 'immediately produced.'
'I got to do the casting. I got to direct the actors and even choreographed the sex scenes. I got to do everything you can imagine,' Gunn recalled. 'Then I got to market it, put it out in theaters and deal with theaters. I got a complete view of the entire industry and the entire production line of putting out a film in such a practical way that I am incredibly fortunate.'
One of the most important things that Gunn valued about Troma was the way he learned how audiences responded to his work.
'I learned more in the first test screening of Tromeo and Juliet than I did about in any other one moment of my entire career about what people like to see in movies,' Gunn said. 'I just got a really great base education at Troma.'
Among the people who are most proud of Gunn is Kaufman, who watched the filmmaker go on to write and direct such cult classics as Slither and Super, pen the screenplay for such hits as the live-action version of Scooby Doo and its sequel, as well as the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.
Gunn, of course, went on to eventually write and direct the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and moved over to DC, where, in addition to writing, directing and producing The Suicide Squad, Peacemaker and Superman, he became co-CEOs of DC Studios with longtime collaborator Peter Safran.
'I may not have talent, but I know talent,' Kaufman said in self-deprecating way during a Zoom conversation about his remake of The Toxic Avenger, which opens in theaters on Aug. 29. '[Among them is] James Gunn, who is writing, directing, producing and running the studio, which has never been done in history.'
Kaufman, by the way, was on hand for the Peacemaker Season 2 premiere in New York City last week, which follows his brief cameo in Superman — something he was proud to do for Gunn following another cameo turn for his protégé in The Suicide Squad.
'I got more positive reinforcement for one second in Superman than for 52 years of working at Troma,' Kaufman enthused.
Peacemaker Season 2 begins Thursday on cable on HBO and on streaming on HBO Max.