James Gunn Says PEACEMAKER’s Quantum Closet Wasn’t Always Story Plan

Nerdist took part in a virtual media roundtable with James Gunn prior to Peacemaker‘s return to HBO Max. During the discussion he addressed a question about the origins and importance of his Quantum Unfolding Chamber. “It was just a place where [Peacemaker] could keep his helmets,” Gunn said. “It wasn’t going to be as important as it became when I first wrote it.”

Obviously it become very important during the writing of season two. That parallel world where Peacemaker has both adoration and his family is the crux of Christopher Smith’s story, both in terms of plot and in terms of theme. Gunn said the ideas of season two are very much influenced by novels he loves. He cited Philip Roth’s The Counterlife, which explores ideas of identity and how our experiences shape who we are, along with Ken Grimwood Replay. It follows a main character who gets to relive his life starting at age 18 with all his old memories intact.

“This is about one emotional journey with the world that seems slightly better than ours and how that helps Christopher Smith to learn about himself,” said Gunn about season two’s overarching idea. “And so that’s the story that interested me, the fun of that singular universe, of the small differences, not the big differences.”

Considering the Quantum Folding Chamber went from being a clever and entertaining idea to a core aspect of season two, we wanted to know how Gunn connects to this ideas himself. He frequently talks about how he personally relates to his characters and their stories, but the current creative head of the DCU would seem to be doing pretty okay in this dimension. So how much does he relate to Christopher Smith’s plight in season two? Here’s what he told us and why even though season two might appear to be a multiverse story it’s not.

It’s personal for me just in that I am a person that thinks back to, “What if I did this thing a little bit differently?” Or, “What if I did that thing a little bit differently? What if I kept that person in my life? What if I wasn’t so mean to this person in the past? How would my life be different? How much do the small choices we make in our lives affect us in really big ways?”

That is really the difference. That’s why this isn’t what has come to be considered a multiverse story. People will say it’s a multiverse story, but it’s really much more contemplative than what we’ve come to see from a multiverse story. As we were saying earlier, it’s a much more of a literary story than that. And it is about the emotional journey of this person who’s really lost everything in his life that has been important to him, from his brother to any sort of real relationship with his father that he never had. And now he’s presented with those things in a way that absolutely is going to be compelling and that we cannot blame Christopher Smith for his actions throughout the season.

The creative process, even for big interconnected cinematic universes, isn’t always linear. They’re certainly fully planned. Small ideas that weren’t important can sprout into big ones. Gunn says he loves to do exactly that. It’s how sometimes a simple storage solution can become the basis for an entire season of stellar television.

But this does raise one obvious question. It’s a fitting one for the show. What would Peacemaker‘s new season look like if Christopher Smith always kept his helmets in a normal basement? Maybe the answer exists Quantum Unfolding Chamber.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He would die for Vigilante, even if Vigilante was the one killing him. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermikeOpens in a new tab. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.