After almost a decade since its first appearance, Peacemaker Season 2 just made this DCEU canon in the new James Gunn universe

Peacemaker has always felt like a character caught between two timelines. The first season landed back in 2022, tied to the remains of the DCEU. The second arrived in August 2025, already framed inside the DCU, the universe James Gunn is building piece by piece. That shift placed the show in a strange position. Not fully detached from what came before, not fully defined by what is coming next.

This balance did not appear as a clean cut. The writing leaned into fragments of memory, pulling pieces from earlier films without denying the reboot. Episode three made it very clear. A single moment was enough to remind viewers that the DCEU had not been erased. It still sits there, overlapping with the new plan.

Peacemaker episode Another Rick Up My Sleeve

The episode doesn’t begin with action or a fight. It goes back. Rick Flag Jr., played again by Joel Kinnaman, appears in a flashback before The Suicide Squad (2021). He’s around Emilia Harcourt, their closeness easy to notice. And then he brings up a name. June Moone. He adds a quick description, calls her a sorceress.

At first, it feels like a casual remark, almost nothing. But the name pulls weight. June Moone is the Enchantress, the part Cara Delevingne carried in Suicide Squad (2016). That one line is enough. The film, long debated and often set aside, steps back into the frame. Nearly a decade after release, it’s part of the story again, folded into this new chapter.

The podcast confirmation

The discussion did not end on screen. In Peacemaker: The Official Podcast, James Gunn confirmed that June Moone exists inside the DCU. Joel Kinnaman joined that conversation, reflecting on the character’s past ties. Gunn avoided explaining how she might appear again, but he left no doubt that she is part of the continuity. That short confirmation carried weight, because it meant a piece of the DCEU remains active, folded into the present structure.

The Enchantress in comics

The Enchantress first appeared way back in 1966. Bob Haney and Howard Purcell put her in the pages of Strange Adventures #187. June Moone was drawn as an ordinary artist until she fell into something strange, something that changed her. A possession, sudden and unsettling, turned her into a witch whenever the power surfaced.

The character never stayed in one lane. Sometimes she leaned toward the heroes, other times, she slipped into darker choices. Always in between, always circling that gray space. In the 1980s, she showed up again, now as part of the modern Task Force X. That return gave her a sharper edge, pulling her into stories where the risks were higher and the tone much darker.

The 2016 version on screen

David Ayer’s Suicide Squad adapted the Enchantress as an archaeologist overtaken by a dark power. Instead of following orders, she turned against the squad, joining forces with her brother, Incubus. The team eventually stopped her and freed June. The film earned $749.2 million worldwide on a budget near $175 million, a commercial success that contrasted with its critical reception. Today, it holds a 26 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Ayer later said in interviews that the edit was taken away from him, leaving a film far from his original intentions. Those remarks deepened the sense of a project that slipped out of its creator’s hands.

What the connection means

The return of June Moone in Peacemaker season 2 bridged two cinematic eras. It showed that the DCU is not starting on an empty page. Instead, it is layering new stories on top of the old ones. This connection does not rewrite the past completely, but it reframes it. The appearance may have been brief, yet it carried symbolic weight. A film once pushed aside now holds a visible thread inside the rebuilt timeline.

The season and what follows

The second season premiered on August 21, 2025, on HBO Max, with episodes rolling out weekly. Alongside the Enchantress reference, the season introduced the Justice Gang, a team that steps in where the Snyderverse Justice League once stood. That change marked the series as more than a continuation. It became a staging ground for the new lineup of heroes while still acknowledging traces of the past. Peacemaker, once seen as a secondary figure, now works as the hinge between eras.

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Closing thoughts

Peacemaker season 2 did not erase history. It absorbed it. The Enchantress, through a single flashback and a note from James Gunn, rejoined the narrative nearly ten years after her first film appearance. The show demonstrated that the DCU, while new, is willing to fold parts of the DCEU into its core. That blending of timelines makes the series not just a continuation but a pivot point, holding together what came before and what is still on the way.

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