Peacemaker finale: James Gunn explains how the surprising cameo came to be

MAJOR SPOILERS for Peacemaker. If you haven’t watched the season finale of the HBO Max series, walk away now. Consider yourself warned. The series stars John Cena as Christoper Smith/Peacemaker as he recovers from the injuries he suffered during the events of The Suicide Squad and is forced to join a mysterious black ops squad to tackle an extraterrestrial threat. The season finale of Peacemaker was a hell of a lot of fun with plenty of surprises, including a cameo I didn’t see coming.

If you’re still with us, you’ll know that the Peacemaker finale cameo was actually a series of cameos as the Justice League made an appearance at the end of the series. After successfully ending the threat of the Butterflies, Peacemaker and the rest of the team are about to leave when Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Aquaman arrive to help. Just a little too late.

While speaking with Variety, Peacemaker writer/director James Gunn said that although he knew he wanted to include the Justice League, he knew they wouldn’t have the budget for them to show up on time. “Never been able to do it,” Gunn said. “They had to show up late.” Although Superman and Wonder Woman are kept as silhouetted figures, Jason Momoa and Ezra Miller did return to reprise their roles of Aquaman and The Flash.

I think before we ever shot the show, we talked to Jason about it. We were like, “Listen, [Peacemaker] says you fuck fish all the time.” And we were a little afraid he would be upset, but he just laughed. He was cool. So he was pretty much on board from the beginning. And then Ezra I just found out through some common friends liked my movies a lot. And so I asked if he would come in and shoot this scene, and he kindly agreed to do that.

James Gunn added that his Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 crew actually shot Ezra Miller’s scene, which he said was only fair as his Peacemaker crew shot Chukwudi Iwuji’s screen test for his mysterious Guardians Vol. 3 character. Gunn said that there was never any real conversations about including Henry Cavill or Gal Gadot; in fact, it was originally just going to be Jason Momoa until Gunn found out that Ezra Miller was also interested. As far as why Batman and Cyborg weren’t included in the group, James Gunn said “there are reasons for it” but that he couldn’t say what those reason might be, only that it likely has to do with “future stuff.” Although Peacemaker may be over, a second season is in the works.