Peacemaker in costume under a spotlight sitting down Max

How 'Peacemaker' Season 2 changed the Justice League cameo from Season 1

Originally posted on Nerdist | By Eric Diaz | Last updated Aug 21, 2025 10:56 PM ET

The two different endings to Peacemaker season one. DC Studios/HBO Max

Of course, Peacemaker season one fans will remember things differently. Back in 2022, it was the Justice League, specifically Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Ezra Miller’s Flash, who showed up and cracked jokes instead. This is all James Gunn’s cheeky way of saying “Everything from season one happened as you remember it, except it was the Justice Gang, not the Justice League, who showed up at the end.” Funnily enough, this is the most DC Comics approach to storytelling that Gunn could have taken. Because DC did this exact same thing regarding its own history a lot in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

In the 1985 event series Crisis on Infinite Earths, the then-fifty-year-old DC Universe continuity was massively changed. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman had their histories greatly altered in new reboots. However, some of the old DC continuity remained. So, there still was a Justice League of America. Only some characters, specifically Wonder Woman, were no longer part of its early history. So when post-Crisis comics retold the formation and early years of the Justice League? Now, they’d show the same classic adventures, but with Black Canary in the place of Wonder Woman in the story.

(Left) The origin of the Justice League from JLA #9 from 1962 (Right) The post-Crisis version of the JLA origin. DC Comics

Obviously, some things from the old DCEU are still canon to this new DCU. Movies like The Suicide Squad and plain old Suicide Squad seem to remain a part of the history. But they deleted just about everything else. No Man of Steel, BvS, Wonder Woman, Shazam, Aquaman, or their respective sequels count any longer. So did the DCEU suffer a massive multiversal Crisis of its own, one that we just never saw play out? We suppose that if we wanted to make 2023’s The Flash an event that changed history, that might work. However, the end of that movie showed Ezra Miller as Barry Allen still in this rebooted reality, not to mention George Clooney as Bruce Wayne. And we know that’s not likely to be canon in the current DCU.

Ultimately, this approach will be a far less painful headache for the DC Studios than it was for DC Comics. From what we can tell, Peacemaker is the only major “active” element from the old DCEU still in continuity. We suppose the two adjacent Suicide Squad projects merit inclusion due to their proximity to him. And we suppose Gunn may include Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn eventually , although that means her Joker is still Jared Leto, and we’d just rather….not go there. In the end, James Gunn handled this continuity issue the best way possible, by just making it fun. Sometimes, that’s enough.

This article first appeared on Nerdist and was syndicated with permission.

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