As Peacemaker Season 2 approaches, here's everything you need to watch before

The John Cena-led DC antihero HBO Max show Peacemaker Season 2 is a week away. Thus, it is clear that you would be curious about the canonicity of the HBO series. Some might not want to watch the upcoming second season, considering they are possibly worried about the previous DC projects to watch to understand the upcoming second season.

The good news is that the second season is set in an entirely new continuity, i.e., the DCU. However, that does not mean that you don't have to watch anything from the past. It's just that John Cena's Christopher Smith/Peacemaker was introduced just in 2021's The Suicide Squad. Thus, it is just that you have to look at four DC projects featuring Chris or characters linked to him before season 2 releases next week.

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What are the DC projects to watch before Peacemaker Season 2?

As stated above, Christopher Smith or characters that shared the screen space with him have appeared only in four DC projects. Here are the projects that you need to watch, listed according to their release dates:

NOTE: The * indicates a project that was released BEFORE James Gunn and Peter Safran were hired in October 2022. The events seen in the starred projects may be canon, certain elements of the said project may be retconned.

• The Suicide Squad (2021)*

We meet John Cena's Christopher Smith in 2021's The Suicide Squad as a Belle Reve inmate who is hired by Viola Davis' Amanda Waller. Chris begins the movie as one of its "protagonists", but turns into one of its antagonists in the final act of the movie. He does so because Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) is about to expose the American Government's involvement in human rights abuses in Corto Maltese.

Chris tries to talk Flg Jr. out of it, and they begin fighting, in which the former comes out on top by killing the latter. Chris will have to finally deal with killing off Flag Jr. in the second season of the HBO Max series, as Rick Flag Sr., played by Frank Grillo, will try to avenge his son's death.

While Kinnaman's Rick Flag Jr. is still canon, we don't know the situation surrounding Flag Jr.'s death in Chris's hand.

• Peacemaker Season 1*

The acclaimed HBO series picks up right where The Suicide Squad left off. Chris has recovered from his injuries in the 2021 movie and regrets killing Flag Jr. He is assigned another mission. He is made to be a part of a team that's headed by Chukwudi Iwuji's Clemson Murn. This team is responsible for thwarting an invasion of alien butterflies that take over human bodies, which they successfully do.

The team loses Clemson Murn in the process of stopping the butterflies, but they also meet the Justice League after successfully stopping the invasion. As the Justice League in the season 1 finale consists of Superman, Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Wonder Woman, and The Flash (Ezra Miller), this moment is no longer canon.

Instead of Justice League, Peacemaker and his team members are rumored to meet the Justice Gang, where we can see Nathan Fillion and Isabela Merced's Green Lantern and Hawkgirl's faces. Similarly, Gunn has also hinted that Murn and his death are canon in the DCU, the character's face might not be that of Chukwudi Iwuji, allowing Gunn to cast the British actor in the DCU if he wants to.

• Creature Commandos

Cena is not a part of the DCU's first project, the animated show, Creature Commandos. However, we can see Chris as one of the dead people in Circe's Vision in the fourth episode of the show. Moreover, one of the show's protagonists is Frank Grillo's Rick Flag Sr., who is set to confront the Peacemaker in the upcoming second season.

• Superman

Christopher Smith is one of the surprising cameos in the 2025 DCU movie. It comes in the second act of Superman as Kal-El's parents' entire footage is translated for everyone across the world. Peacemaker appears in a late-night show, giving his opinion of the Man of Steel.

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The second season of the HBO Max series will begin streaming on the platform from August 21, 2025.