In Thursday's episode of Peacemaker, Nicholas Hoult reprised his Superman role as Lex Luthor for a meeting with Rick Flag Sr. That looks set to bring the villain one step closer to winning his freedom, a major development with Man of Tomorrow on the horizon.
Before season 2 of Peacemaker launched on HBO Max, James Gunn promised fans a "really, really, really big cameo." It's looking increasingly likely that he was talking about Lex, but many fans remain hopeful that David Corenswet will show up as Superman.
Heck, with Earth-X in play, it's not outside the realm of possibility that the actor will don Overman's suit to portray the Nazi Man of Steel.
Talking to Variety, Gunn was asked directly whether Corenswet will star as any version of Superman in Peacemaker. "No," the filmmaker confirmed. "In fact, David was very upset that Nick got to be on the show, and he didn’t. It just didn’t work."
"I needed Lex in the show to serve a specific purpose. And actually, what Lex and Rick Flag are up to affects very much what happens in an aspect of 'Man of Tomorrow,'" Gunn teased. "So all of that is connected. But this relationship between Rick Flag and Lex Luthor is a potentially negative thing for Superman and all meta-humans."
The DC Studios co-CEO has previously described Peacemaker as a Man of Tomorrow prequel, and recently revealed whether Earth-X will factor into the 2027 movie.
Talking to the trade, Gunn said that he always knew Lex's story would continue in this HBO Max series before his clash—and team-up—with Clark Kent in the next chapter of the "Superman Saga."
"Totally, yeah. I didn’t know some things about it, but I knew what the overall story of the DCU was," he shared. "That was something I pitched to [Warner Bros. Discovery CEO] David Zaslav before we even took the job. I’m like, here’s the story. There’s going to be this movie, this show, this movie, this show, and those things all fit in in different ways."
"Some things came, like 'Clayface,' that we didn’t expect, and other things have been a harder road to travel," Gunn acknowledged. "But the general outline of that overall story is what we are following through 'Superman,' 'Peacemaker,' 'Man of Tomorrow' and beyond."
We still don't know what Gunn's endgame is in his 10-year plan for the DCU, but with the Justice Gang in play, it seems likely that we'll eventually see the Justice League assemble to take on a universe-ending threat.
Brainiac will almost certainly factor into Man of Tomorrow, so we're still betting on the Centre being the big bad of "Gods and Monsters." You'll want to read Darwyn Cooke's The New Frontier to learn more about that villain.
Six episodes of Peacemaker season 2 are now streaming on HBO Max.