James Gunn is the most verbose man in the entire superhero industry, and he is happy to discuss his DC projects openly pretty much every day. He’s now addressing questions related to Peacemaker episode 7 ahead of the finale, and has already axed a popular fan theory about the end of the episode.
One of the not-evil doppelgangers in the Nazi-filled Earth-X is Vigilante, resistance fighter. He joins Prime Vigilante to go rescue his friends, and helps kill Auggie, moments after Peacemaker realizes that perhaps he’s not an evil Nazi like the rest.
The theory, however, is that in the scramble to leave the world through the portal, the moment where one Vigilante makes it through the door with Harcourt and the other Vigilante stays behind to fight the cops and presumably die, that it was actually Vigilante Prime, not Earth-X Vigilante. They switched at the last minute, and Peacemaker’s actual friend is now stuck in Earth-X. The other one, who hates Peacemaker, is now in the “normal” world.
James Gunn says no. After confirming that Prime Vigilante stabbed Auggie, he then goes on to talk about the idea of a switch:
“Yes and Yes (confirming the stabbing and the exit). No silly switcheroos here. And people keep asking if Chris can forgive Vig. I think Chris only blames himself for all this.”
That would have been a rather bleak development, to shove “real” Vigilante into that other universe where he’s almost certainly dead, even if it was a “heroic sacrifice” moment for his friends. There’s only one episode left now, and I think the show has other things to deal with rather than mourning their Vigilante and dealing with this new one, unfamiliar with their world. No time for that. That would have been a twist for its own sake, and I’m glad that Gunn didn’t do it.
The finale, meanwhile, is far more grand in scale than anything else we’ve seen. We know it’s about doors opening to wild other worlds, and James Gunn is promising that this hour-long finale has huge implications for the DCU as a whole. That sort of goes against his “you shouldn’t have to do homework” for the DCU philosophy, but I suppose we’ll see what happens with this. Many are expecting big DCU cameos. We’ve already gotten Lex Luthor. Superman or Supergirl could show up. Strangely, Gunn seems to be hinting that Blue Beetle might be there for some reason. With all the universe “doors” here, it seems like anything’s possible, maybe even dipping back into the DCEU. We’ll find out on Thursday.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
