Peacemaker Season 2 Almost Featured a Marvel Cameo – Here’s Why James Gunn Cut It

This article contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of “Peacemaker.”

The Season 2 finale of “Peacemaker” opened many doors, one of which led to a location that could have major implications for the future of the DC Universe. However, showrunner and DC Studios co-head James Gunn ultimately decided not to let the 11th Street Kids (or, should we say, Checkmate) come face to face with the most talkative hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In an interview with Deadline, Gunn admitted that he considered crossing the streams of the Marvel and DC cinematic universes by having none other than Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool appear in season 2 of “Peacemaker.” In fact, he and Reynolds even had real, honest conversations to get this done.

According to Gunn:

“Yeah, I wanted them to open the door and see Deadpool in a room. I talked to Ryan Reynolds about it, and we would have had to go through some really, really big hoops to do that. He wanted to do it. That’s all anyone’s going to talk about now is fucking Deadpool in the other room.”

Truth be told, if one opened a door-shaped Pandora’s Box like that, you can guarantee comic book fans would have a mild panic attack. Really, there’s something entirely fitting about the idea of ​​John Cena’s Peacemaker meeting Reynolds’ Wade Wilson — two of the screen’s most sworn superheroes. But even if it didn’t happen this time around, does the fact that a live-action Marvel/DC crossover was even seriously discussed bring the possibility of a crossover even closer to reality?

As it stands, Gunn’s DCU has already referenced the Marvel Universe twice. First, Dr. Phosphorous (Alan Tudyk) was called Ghost Rider in “Creature Commandos,” while the two vigilantes (Freddie Stroma) turned on each other while doing the Spider-Man pointing meme in “Peacemaker” season 2, episode 6. And while these are just throwaway gags, Gunn has openly discussed the potential for a crossover with characters from these different comic book worlds colliding. The only problem? There has to be a good artistic reason for doing it, beyond “just because”.

“I think people want to see good stories with their superheroes, and that’s what matters. And they want to see different kinds of stories with their superheroes. And people like superheroes. That’s obvious, but they need more variety, and they just need more quality storytelling,” Gunn theorized in an interview with Rolling Stone. “And Spider-Man and Superman teaming up isn’t going to be enough if it’s shit. So it has to come from a real place, and it’s really hard to make that work.”

Given these comments and the news regarding the Deadpool cameo that never was, it seems like Gunn isn’t totally against a Marvel Cinematic Universe/DC Universe crossover at some point; it simply has to serve a genuine narrative purpose. For now, let’s just be happy that Gunn is doing a good job rebuilding a universe from the ground up before we even consider taking a look at another.

“Peacemaker” is now streaming on HBO Max.