DC Studios released the first official trailer for Peacemaker Season 2, and revealed quite a lot about what changed from Season 1. Though the trailer does reveal most of the main cast returning, it does have some new faces. These include Isabella Merced’s Hawkgirl and Nathan Fillion’s Green Lantern, both of whom will appear in James Gunn’s Superman. Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr. is also present, having last appeared in DC Studios’ animated series, Creature Commandos. Peacemaker will also mark Rick Sr.’s first live-action appearance.
One thing that is carried over from Season 1 and The Suicide Squad is the death of Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman). The trailer even hints at Rick Sr. seeking revenge against his killer, Christopher Smith (John Cena). The most interesting thing in the trailer, however, is not the plot threads being carried over from the previous season or James Gunn’s other DCU projects. Instead, Season 2 may have found a way to connect the current DCU to the previous DCEU developed by Zack Snyder: Hypertime.
The DC Multiverse, Explained
The DC Multiverse is as old a concept as the Justice League itself. Originally debuting in 1961’s “The Flash of Two Worlds” in The Flash #123, Barry Allen first discovered the multiverse when he ran so fast, he accidentally ended up in a parallel reality. Not only was this world unfamiliar to Barry, but this world turned out to be the home of the original 1940s Flash, Jay Garrick.
Also residing on this world were the original versions of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, along with other Golden Age heroes like the Justice Society of America and the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Since discovering this parallel reality, Barry’s world became dubbed “Earth-One” and Jay Garrick’s world effectively became “Earth-Two.” This then became the source of annual Justice League and Justice Society crossovers involving the multiverse from 1961 to 1985, when DC’s mega crossover event, Crisis on Infinite Earths, destroyed the multiverse.
Prior to that, however, the multiverse did expand, most notably after DC Comics acquired intellectual properties from defunct publishers. With the exception of Earth-Three (which was the home of the villainous Crime Syndicate), Earth-Four became the home of the Charlton Comics characters (where Peacemaker originally comes from), Earth-S became the Fawcett Comics world (containing the Shazam characters), with Earth-X effectively being the Quality Comics universe and the home of the Freedom Fighters.
How Crisis on Infinite Earths Led to Hypertime
After Crisis on Infinite Earths destroyed the multiverse, the six aforementioned Earths merged into a single Earth that became known as “New Earth.” In later decades, the post-Crisis Earth became known as Earth-0 or Prime Earth. Unfortunately, this merging of Earths created major continuity holes that couldn’t be explained away with simple retcons. As such, DC had to find a way to restore some version of its multiverse history without jeopardizing its more streamlined post-Crisis history. To this effect, Hypertime was created.
Unlike the pre-Crisis multiverse that was made up of parallel Earths, Hypertime was instead a collection of alternate timelines that branched away from the primary timeline. This is very similar to the MCU’s branch realities, with Prime Earth being the DCU’s version of the Sacred Timeline. The Flash movie from 2023 explored some version of this concept when Barry Allen used the Speed Force to travel to the past and change one event in his life: the death of his mother. This led to the creation of a new timeline that effectively turned the DCEU’s Barry into a temporal paradox.
When Barry attempted to restore his original timeline, this once more resulted in a whole new timeline being created. Peacemaker Season 2 appears to be revisiting this same concept to explain the continuity holes between Seasons 1 and 2. More specifically, it appears Hypertime will be the explanation for why some characters from Zack Snyder’s DCEU carried over to James Gunn’s DCU, and why others did not.
Hypertime is the Perfect Explanation for James Gunn’s DCU
One thing that will undoubtedly frustrate some members of the general audience is a complicated new universe that isn’t a clean break from the one that came before. As mentioned, James Gunn’s DCU isn’t a completely separate continuity from the one Zack Snyder created.
Among the characters who carried over into his new universe aside from Peacemaker are most of the Suicide Squad characters, along with Xolo Maridueña’s Blue Beetle. In other cases, actors from Snyder’s DCEU will also appear in Gunn’s DCU in entirely new roles. This is the case with Jason Momoa, who has been recast as Lobo. Previously, Momoa played Arthur Curry, the titular hero of the DCEU’s Aquaman movies.
Many of the other DCEU characters (most notably the Justice League) have either already been recast or are in the process of being recast. The first major change on this front has been David Corenswet’s Superman replacing Henry Cavill, along with the Man of Steel’s supporting characters being recast. Whereas the DCEU’s Justice League did cameo towards the end of Peacemaker Season 1, the trailer for Season 2 confirms the show is no longer set in the same universe. It achieves this with the cameo appearances of Hawkgirl and Guy Gardner, who are entirely unique to Gunn’s DCU.
The trailer also throws in another major clue about the status of Gunn’s DCU: the presence of another Peacemaker confronting the main one from the show. The two Peacemakers can be explained one of two ways. One possible explanation is that one of these characters will turn out to be the Peacemaker from Snyder’s DCEU. This will effectively make the one starring in Season 2 native to Gunn’s DCU, and a separate character from the one that came before.
Going the Hypertime route will also validate Gunn’s earlier comments that continuity is not real. Going this route will similarly validate the events of 2023’s The Flash creating a new timeline – perhaps multiple new timelines. The latter is especially implied when Peacemaker is seen opening a door in a lab that takes him to another reality. The other explanation is that the DC Multiverse (as in parallel Earths) is a part of the core mythology Gunn is building, and some organization (likely A.R.G.U.S.) has discovered a way to access it.
Parallel Earths would also be a great way for Gunn to validate the existence of the DCEU’s Peacemaker. It could even lead to this universe being dubbed “Earth-4,” which would both homage the Charlton universe and Zack Snyder’s own love of Watchmen, which in itself took inspiration from the Charlton heroes. Establishing the DC Multiverse early would also validate DC Elseworlds franchises like Matt Reeves’ The Batman universe. Whichever way Gunn ends up going, one thing seems to be clear: James Gunn’s DCU won’t be the only one in existence.
