Ever since the announcement that James Gunn would be taking over as co-CEO of Warner Bros.' DC Studios, fans have wondered exactly what would and would not be considered part of the new DCU canon moving forward.
Though a full reboot did seem like the most logical step, we'd soon learn that Gunn was still planning to forge ahead with a second season of Peacemaker, which was obviously part of the DCEU and even featured cameos from Justice League members such as Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and The Flash (Ezra Miller).
Further clouding the waters somewhat was the fact that Gunn also helmed the movie that Peacemaker was a spin-off of, The Suicide Squad.
Here's what Gunn had to say about the DCU canon in a previous interview.
"Short answer: Only Creature Commandos forward is pure canon. For instance, Rick Flag Jr. was killed because we heard Rick Flag Sr. talking about it in Creature Commandos, not because we saw it in The Suicide Squad."
He added, "Long answer: Only CC forward is pure canon; Peacemaker is almost entirely consistent with that canon other than the Justice League; The Suicide Squad has a lot of consistencies, but I think of it as an imperfect memory."
Now, Gunn has attempted to simplify things a little by going over "the basics" of canon in a brief video shared by the official Peacemaker X account.
Basically, Creature Commandos, Superman and Peacemaker season 2 are now canon, but anything any character brings up that happened in the DCEU then becomes part of the new canon.
It remains to be seen how season 2 of Peacemaker retcons the likes of the Justice League showing up in the season 1 finale, but it doesn't sound like it's going to have anything to do with the pocket dimension, as many fans assumed.
“In season 2, Peacemaker discovers an alternate world where life is everything he wishes it could be. But this discovery also forces him to face his traumatic past and take the future into his own hands.”
"People are realizing that Peacemaker Season Two is about two dimensions, and that’s really the core of the show," Gunn explained during a recent interview with Rolling Stone. "But it’s not as if one of these is old DCEU and one’s DCU. That’s dealt with in a different way, very upfront in a season where most everything in Season One is canon and some things are not. And in fact, I did a podcast with [actors] Steve Agee and Jen Holland. And we did every episode of Peacemaker, and in those episodes, I talk about what’s canon and what’s not. I basically chip off little things from Peacemaker Season One that aren’t canon, like Aquaman. But most of the stuff is canon."
"The new season follows Christopher 'Chris' Smith, aka Peacemaker, the vigilante Super Hero as he struggles to reconcile his past with his newfound sense of purpose while continuing to kick righteous evil-doer butt in his misguided quest for peace at any cost."