James Gunn has been in the business of superhero movies long enough to know when to hold back information. During a recent interview with Variety about the finale of his The Suicide Squad spin-off series Peacemaker, he teased that there are changes coming to the DCEU’s Justice League team but clearly couldn’t elaborate on how those changes will come about. This article contains some spoilers for the finale of Peacemaker, so take care reading on.
James Gunn sent Peacemaker fans wild by including an unexpected cameo by the Justice League in the finale of the show’s first season. The appearance of the superhero group in a silent cameo would have been one thing, but Gunn went one step further to get Aquaman star Jason Momoa and The Flash’s Ezra Miller to have speaking roles in the scene. However, while Superman and Wonder Woman were also in the scene, performed by shadowed doubles rather than their respective actors, Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot, notable absences from the group were Batman and Cyborg.
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Asked why iterations of Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight and Ray Fisher’s Cyborg were not used in the show, Gunn became a little more guarded than while speaking on other subjects, suggesting that he knows a little more than he was allowed to say. What he was able to share was:
There are said to be a lot of changes coming to the DCEU at the end of the year when The Flash delves into the multiverse, bringing Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne back to the franchise as well as featuring Ben Affleck’s alleged final appearance as Batman. How those changes will resonate through the future of the Justice League is unknown, but with Keaton also involved in the Batgirl movie, it is clear there is something coming to shake up the format.
“You know, I don’t know what I can — there are reasons for it, but I’m actually uncertain whether I can say what those reasons are. It might have to do with future stuff.”
James Gunn Enjoyed a Lot of Freedom Working on Peacemaker That He Doesn’t Have at Marvel
While circumstances have allowed James Gunn to be in the pretty unique position of working on both Marvel and DC projects simultaneously, he has been very open about the level of freedom he has been given by Warner Bros. while working on The Suicide Squad movie and Peacemaker series and their R-rating.
“I mean, Marvel really lets me have a lot of freedom, but I’m still making a PG-13 movie,” he told Empire magazine last year. “So I just loved the whole no-holds-barred approach of being able to make this enormous movie - with no rules!”
Exactly how much freedom Gunn has is apparent from his use of the Justice League in the Peacemaker finale, which saw the usually PG-13 group appearing in his R-rated world and the fact that he didn’t discuss the idea before including it in the script. “Um, you know, I didn’t have a conversation. I just wrote it and gave them the scripts. I don’t think they really realized what they had agreed to until they saw what I had shot, which was the Justice League there. And then I think the full weight of it and, you know, what does this mean for the DCU and all of that became huge pieces of conversation up to the very highest levels of Warners. And to their credit, they let me get away with it.”
Fans will be hoping that Gunn, and other filmmakers, are allowed to get away with taking more liberties like this in future, and as Gunn is already planning the second season of Peacemaker as well another Suicide Squad spin-off, there are a lot more boundaries for Gunn to push soon. Peacemaker is currently streaming the entire first season on HBO Max.
