James Gunn calls Peacemaker's big cameo 'really important for the entire DCU'

[ad_1] Episode 6 of DC Studio's Peacemaker season 2 contains a key cameo that additionally acts as a bridge between James Gunn's 2025 film Superman and the direct sequel, 2027's Man of Tomorrow. On episode 6 of Peacemaker: The Official Podcast, writer-director James Gunn confirmed it is meant as "a very vital second for not solely Peacemaker, however all the DCU." Shot whereas Gunn was nonetheless in manufacturing on Superman, the scene is the newest Peacemaker second to the touch on Superman's aftermath. It additionally catches up with a key character and begins placing items in place for the following film.

[Ed. note: Major spoilers ahead for Peacemaker season 2, episode 6, "Ignorance is Chris."]

Episode 6 brings again Nicholas Hoult in his position as Lex Luthor, now being held within the notorious metahuman carceral facility Belle Reve Jail, the bottom of operations for the Suicide Squad. After Superman's unsung true hero, investigative journalism, reveals Luthor because the mastermind behind the Boravia/Jarhanpur battle (and a fraud who made the web a complete lot extra disagreeable than it wanted to be in an try and smear Superman's title), he will get carted off to jail in shame to serve what he describes as a 265-year sentence.

However Peacemaker units Lex up for the following part of his profession, as revenge-driven ARGUS head Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) cuts a cope with him, promising him "a possibility for redemption" in change for expertise that may let Flag pursue his vendetta in opposition to Chris Smith (John Cena), aka Peacemaker. Step one is transferring Lex out of Belle Reve and away from the metahumans he despises a lot, and over to the Van Kull most safety jail, beforehand seen in DC's Arrowverse. That looks as if a minor concession, however the acknowledgment that the federal government wants Luthor's genius and his expertise looks as if a serious nudge towards his deliberate team-up with Superman in Man of Tomorrow.

<img width="1650" height="928" loading="lazy" decoding="async" fetchpriority="low" alt="Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, in prison orange, talks to a shadowy offscreen figure in Peacemaker" data-img-url="https://static0.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/nicholas-hoult_0.jpeg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2" src="https://static0.polygonimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/nicholas-hoult_0.jpeg?q=49&fit=crop&w=825&dpr=2"/> Picture: HBO Max/DC Studios Gunn and his co-hosts and friends have astonishingly little to say about this scene and its implications in episode 6 of the podcast. Gunn does notice that it was presupposed to be a part of episode 7, however that he moved it up as a result of he wanted extra of a tonal transition between the comparatively goofy sequence the place Peacemaker's sidekick Eagly trashes the Prime Trio's kitchen and eats lunch meat, and Chris' emotional confrontation with Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) about their relationship.

And the podcast crew mentions that Hoult could not swear in Superman (which might have been vital to assist protect the movie's PG-13 score), however that he can say something in Peacemaker — which explains Luthor's line grousing about "the Justice Gang and Superman figuring out worldwide politics" whereas he is caught in Belle Reve, "listening to a bear-sized man with dragon pores and skin butt-fucking a glowing twink with cartoon eyes in a cell beside me each night time." Gunn and firm do not deal with which DC characters are being referenced there (although "a bear-sized man with dragon pores and skin" confined to Belle Reve actually seems like Killer Croc), which is a bit of stunning, given the podcast's earlier excursions into which deep-cut DC characters Peacemaker has instructed are canon someplace.

However regardless that they let the scene go by with minimal dialogue, Gunn makes it clear that Luthor's look on the present is not only a fan-service second. It is meant as a turning level, the start of Luthor's transfer again into the general public eye — or at the least a transfer into working for Flag and ARGUS — in a capability meant to arrange Man of Tomorrow and the following part of his profession as a Superman-hating supervillain.