James Gunn says Peacemaker was once HBO Max’s “biggest show,” which makes the show’s Season 2 falloff look even worse.
The DC Studios co-head made the comment on Threads while responding to a fan who asked why the new DCU wasn’t a complete reboot and why certain Suicide Squad and Peacemaker cast members were kept.
Gunn said Peacemaker Season 2 deals were already in place when he took over at DC, leaving him with two choices: either break the contracts and pay everyone out, or make the show work within the new DCU.
James Gunn Says Peacemaker Was HBO Max’s Biggest Show
Gunn wrote: “Peacemaker Season 2 deals were all in place when I became head of DC. It was either break everyone’s contracts and pay out all that money and take away HBO Max’s biggest show at the time or find a way to make it work. I chose the latter. Mostly tho because I love the character and the show and thought he/they could be an important part of the DCU.”
Peacemaker Season 1 aired from January to February 2022 and was a strong performer for HBO Max. The streamer said at the time that the finale broke records for an HBO Max original episode, and Gunn has now framed it as the platform’s biggest show when he took over DC.
But that also creates a rough comparison for Season 2.
Season 2 Dropped Nearly 40% In Nielsen Ratings
Following Gunn’s DC takeover, Peacemaker Season 2 aired from August to October 2025 as part of the new DCU, tying directly into Gunn’s Superman and the broader DC Studios plan.
However, Nielsen revealed the ratings dropped nearly 40%.
So if Gunn’s version of events is accurate, Peacemaker went from being HBO Max’s biggest show to losing a huge chunk of its audience over the span of one season.
That is not exactly the trajectory you want for one of the first major live-action pieces of the new DCU.
No Season 3 Is Planned
Making things more interesting is that there are no current plans for Peacemaker Season 3.
Gunn has said the character and some of the cast could still continue in the DCU, but not through another season of Peacemaker.
You don’t end a series if it’s the “biggest show.”
The series was important enough to survive the reboot. It was important enough to be rewritten into the new DCU. It was important enough to carry over Gunn’s Suicide Squad-era characters. But after Season 2, the show itself is not continuing.
What happened?
What happened is fans completely rejected Gunn’s divisive take on the DCU.
Peacemaker Season 2 leaned further into Gunn’s same political messaging.
Gunn’s approach again was aimed at mocking conservatives, but that argument looks even weaker now in light of recent claims involving the Southern Poverty Law Center and left-wing funding tied to groups on the very side the organization has long claimed to oppose.
If those claims are accurate, it undercuts the entire premise Gunn was pushing. The supposed “threat” was not what it was made out to be, which makes Peacemaker Season 2’s political angle feel even more forced, made up, and completely without merit.
Fans responded the only way that matters. They stopped watching.
Now HBO appears to be taking a much firmer hand with Lanterns, which has already had problems of its own. The first trailer surfaced, disappeared, resurfaced, and disappeared again — and still has not been properly rolled out across official channels.
The head of HBO has also made it clear that he now approves all scripts.
Instead of building confidence in the DCU, it is more confusion, more mixed woke messaging, and more divisiveness from a franchise that badly needs a clean win.
