The Season 2 finale of James Gunn’s Peacemaker has been divisive to say the least. It’s the lowest-scored episode of the entire series, and fans are divided about whether it was a good way to end this series or a major disappointment. I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it was an unsatisfying conclusion to this season and this series, which is not returning for a third season. On the other hand, it has big implications for the future of the DCU. One way or another, Peacemaker’s story is not over.
‘Peacemaker’ Season 3 Isn’t Happening, But ‘Checkmate’ Could Be Next
Peacemaker ended on both a high-note and a major cliffhanger. Chris (John Cena) and the gang call it quits with ARGUS and the government and welcome some new members to their crew: Sasha Bordeaux (Sol Rodriguez), Judomaster (Nhut Le) and Langston Fleury (Tim Meadows) all ditch their former employer and team up with Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) and Economos (Steve Agee). They form a new agency called Checkmate, with its clearly stated mission on the office building’s new sign:
“Making The World Better” is a noble cause, and our newly-expanded 11th Street Kids team is clearly excited to leave the subterfuge and Machiavellian tactics of ARGUS and its boss, Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) behind them. But there’s a comic-book tie-in that’s incredibly important that casual viewers may not know anything about.
Checkmate was originally created by writer Paul Kupperberg and artist Steve Erwin, debuting in Action Comics #598 in March of 1988. The following month, the Checkmate comics launched. While this iteration of the agency is different from the original, it’s going to play a major role in upcoming DC projects.
“You’ll definitely see Checkmate carrying through,” Gunn told Deadline in an interview. “Like, they’re a thing now. They’re a part of what’s going to happen. And I think they’re going to be really, really good at what they do. When we see them next, I think their circumstances will be a little bit different than the startup that [they are] now.”
The biggest clue that Checkmate was happening this season was the inclusion of Sasha Bordeaux, who was initially associated with Batman but later became a key part of the agency. According to Gunn, Bordeaux will be primarily focused on Checkmate going forward, not the Caped Crusader. It’s possible that while we aren’t getting a third season of Peacemaker, all the characters will return in a Checkmate series, and potentially in some of the upcoming DCU films.
Salvation’s Run Could Be An Amazing DCU Arc
Salvation’s Run is a seven-issue 2007-2008 DC Comics limited series based on a pitch from Game Of Thrones author, George R.R. Martin. The basic concept is that Rick Flag Jr. and Amanda Waller exile a bunch of metahuman villains to a planet (in the comics it’s Cygnus 4019) called Salvation, which is the name Flag Sr. gives it in Peacemaker when ARGUS finally finds a suitable planet to use as a prison.
In the comics, we get all sorts of crossover villains, including Lex Luthor going toe-to-toe with The Joker. But the DCU version of this storyline will differ from the comics according to Gunn. The DCU boss told Nerdist:
So there’s a very distinct storyline with the Joker versus Lex Luthor, all that, but it’s not that. The part that really spoke to me was the beginning of it, where in that version, Rick Flag Jr and Amanda Waller were like, “F*#% it. Metahumans are a pain in the ass. They keep escaping. Let’s just get rid of them permanently, and they send them to the other place.” And of course, there are a bunch of repercussions about sending a bunch of bad guys to another dimension, and in this case, the sole person there right now is a good guy who has to survive on his own.
In other words, we’re getting a new version of Salvation’s Run with Peacemaker at the heart of it, though how and where this plays out is up for speculation. Either way, it’s an exciting concept to adapt into the DCU and I’m really curious to see who (and what) Peacemaker encounters on Salvation, and which metahumans will inevitably join him there.
Why This Matters For ‘Clayface’ And ‘Man Of Tomorrow’
At this point, we can only theorize on how Salvation’s Run and Checkmate will play out in future DCU projects. There are lots of projects in development, from Batman: The Brave And The Bold to the Lanterns TV series and a second season of the animated Creature Commandos.
First up is Supergirl (June 26, 2026) and shortly after we get our first live-action look at Batman villain, Clayface (September 11, 2026). What’s interesting about Clayface is two-fold. First off, this lesser-known character is a very peculiar choice for the third DCU film. We are wise to ask: Why this particular villain? Why now?
Fans have speculated that Clayface has already made an appearance in the DCU beyond his role in Creature Commandos where he battled the animated version of Rick Flag Sr. The villain has unique powers that are potentially very relevant. He’s a shape-shifter, taking on the appearance of other characters. Following the Season 2 finale of Peacemaker, some fans theorize that Rick Flag Sr. is not himself at all, but rather Clayface in Flag Sr.’s form.
The evidence? Rick Flag Sr. acted pretty strangely all season, and not every action can be justified by his desire for revenge. It’s also possible that he was been replaced by Clayface midway through the season following his meeting with Lex Luthor.
In the finale, when Harcourt mentions that he wanted her to just call him “Rick not General” he seems to not remember doing so, and doesn’t even respond to her when she calls him Rick. Was he just distracted or has he been replaced? He’s also not even the least broken up about losing so many soldiers in the QUD – we see multiple shots of him laughing and celebrating but none that show him grappling with the cost of success – which feels deeply out of character. Stranger still, he seems to have gone well beyond a tenuous alliance with Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and Luthor’s people, fully embracing a man he was clearly disdainful toward in Superman.
It’s also possible that Lex has done something else to Flag Sr. to make him behave so strangely, or that these are all just red herrings and he truly is just blinded by revenge and giddy at Peacemaker’s impending doom.
How this all plays out in Man Of Tomorrow is an even bigger mystery. Given that the movie will feature Superman teaming up with Lex Luthor, we know the supervillain has to be major, and all signs point toward Brainiac. It’s possible that the only way to defeat him will be to trap him in Salvation, leading to a bigger event movie that ties all these elements together.
It seems likely that all of this will connect to Batman, Lanterns and eventually some kind of Justice League – or Justice Gang? – movie. Even though I wasn’t a fan of the new Superman film, I’m excited by the implications of all these storylines weaving together.
The Bad News
While all of these theories and potential tie-ins and spinoffs are exciting, I can’t help but still feel a little let-down by the ending of Peacemaker. Season 2 ended up being really good, but it also feels like too much was stuffed into too few episodes and the whole thing ended without truly resolving Peacemaker’s arc. Sure, he came to terms with himself and his family. He left the Peacemaker persona behind, in a sense, abandoning the uniform and the helmets and becoming Chris. That’s pretty satisfying on one level, but it also leaves us hanging, and not just because his fate is so uncertain as the lone prisoner on Salvation.
It’s possible that a Checkmate series will serve as a de facto Peacemaker Season 3, with more focus on the ensemble rather than Chris’s journey. But even still, this feels like unfinished business to me.
I’m also not sure I love the idea of connecting this show in such crucial ways to the DCU films. Gunn said that unlike the MCU, the DCU’s movies and TV shows are going to be less connected and instead follow the Game Of Thrones and Star Wars models by “building a universe and then picking out little pieces of it and telling individual stories from that universe.” The risk with making everything connected is that it becomes mandatory viewing, and audiences are left in the dark if they’ve only seen the films and skipped the shows.
This is tricky, because as far as setups go, the Peacemaker finale was pretty great, but as far as TV series finales go, it was a big disappointment. What did you think of Peacemaker Season 2 and its controversial finale? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
