James Gunn has taken to Instagram to reveal a first official look at the new helmet John Cena's Christopher Smith will don in the second season of Peacemaker.
The photo only shows the helmet from the back, but it's clearly a new design. It'll be interesting to see if the entire helmet more is inspired by the character's earliest appearances, or possibly the banner image above.
"On this day, #Peacemaker aka Christopher Smith made his first comic appearance in Fightin’ 5 #40, in 1966, created by Joe Gill and Pat Boyette," Gunn captioned his post. "It’s the role @JohnCena was born to play, and I can’t wait to show you all what we’re cooking up now for @Peacemaker Season 2!"
Though the photo has since been removed, a mural was recently spotted on set featuring John Cena's Peacemaker (wearing a slightly different costume), his father in his White Dragon outfit, and a mysterious third character who many believe will turn out to be Christopher Smith's brother, Keith.
If you watched season 1, you'll know that Chris accidentally killed his older brother by punching him in the head when their father forced them to fight for his Aryan pals' entertainment, but the theory is that this image was painted in an alternate timeline where Keith lived and joined his father and brother as part of a vigilante team.
This may seem like a bit of a stretch, but we do know that Robert Patrick is set to return as Augee Smith despite being killed off in the season 1 finale, and it would explain James Gunn's comments about season 1 not being part of the DCU.
Rather than simply pretending certain events (the Justice League cameos, for example) didn't happen, he might be planning to bring Peacemaker and the supporting characters into a whole new reality.
Danielle Brooks and Steve Agee have also been confirmed to reprise their season 1 roles, with Sol Rodríguez and David Denman joining the fray as Sasha Bordeaux and "Larry."
"Peacemaker explores the continuing story of the character that John Cena reprises in the aftermath of executive producer James Gunn's 2021 film The Suicide Squad – a compellingly vainglorious man who believes in peace at any cost, no matter how many people he has to kill to get it!"
Season 2 plot details are still mostly under wraps, but we do know that Frank Grillo will reprise his Creature Commandos role as Rick Flag Sr., and will be seeking revenge for Peacemaker killing his son Rick Jr. (Joel Kinnaman) in The Suicide Squad.
Gunn, Peter Safran, and Matt Miller are the series' executive producers. Co-executive producer John Cena and consulting producer Stacy Littlejohn are also involved in the production of the show.
A premiere date has not been announced.