James Gunn Unpacks New ‘Peacemaker’ Dance Sequence and Why Season 2 Is Not Another Multiverse Story

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Peacemaker” Season 2, Episode 1.

After three years away, James Gunn knew big changes were coming for “Peacemaker” Season 2 and they started with a complete redo of its viral opening number.

The first season of the DCU series enjoyed some startling virality right out of the premiere gate with an opening dance routine set to Norwegian metal band Wig Wam’s “Do Ya Wanna Taste It.” The cast of the show went through a stilted, awkward, yet always charming number to the song on a soundstage while the credits rolled. It was a hit that sparked enough curiosity in those just seeing the opening to check out the show.

And then Gunn decided to change the entire thing for Season 2.

“I knew the dance had to change because we killed everybody in Season 1,” Gunn told TheWrap. “But I wasn’t sure whether I was going to change the song or keep the song the same and do a different dance. And after just listening to a lot of things, and just going walking through my imagination, I eventually hit upon ‘Oh Lord,’ which I thought was great. They have a great music video which has dancing in it, and I thought that was a good inspiration for Season 2.”

He continued: “[Foxy Shazam] are literally my favorite band. But I think that the lyrics are very much about what happens in Season 2. I think that in the same way ‘Do Ya Wanna Taste It’ really captured the flavor, both the light and the dark sides of Season 1, the same is true of ‘Oh Lord.’

The opening sequence is far from the only change coming in Season 2. The self-proclaimed 11th Street Kids — Peacemaker (John Cena), Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), Adrian (Freddie Stroma) and Economos (Steve Agee) — are all picking up the pieces of their lives. Despite saving the world from the alien invasion dubbed Project Butterfly, their lives are in various states of disrepair at the start of Season 2.

Gunn has always enjoyed writing a character experience a new rock bottom. And while he told TheWrap that despite some of the major losses the 11th Street Kids experienced toward the end of Season 1 — Peacemaker killed his dad, Adebayo fell out with her mother Amanda Waller — there were some net positives for all but one character.

“Harcourt’s the worst by far. I think there are small gains for Peacemaker. I think he did something good — honestly, killing his dad is probably good for his life. He’s more self aware, he’s more vulnerable. He’s more in touch with his feelings. He’s better off than he was at the beginning of Season 1. Adebayo is better off too. She knows who she is and she has dreams, and she’s just her ever-loving, optimistic self. “

He added: “Harcourt is worse off. Her job was everything to her. It’s all she’s ever done. The only people that mattered to her were the soldiers that walked alongside her, and she’s lost that. So she is a freaking mess.”

Although Gunn thinks Peacemaker is better off after killing his racist dad, the character is struggling with the weight of it and wanting to be a legitimate hero. The knife is only twisted when he uses the dimensional portal into a pocket universe his dad discovered and finds a door to another universe where he, his (still living) brother, and (also still living) father all work together as a team of heroes that are celebrated the world over.

Multiverse stories have been all the rage in the 2020s. The MCU is rocketing toward the conclusion of their Muliverse Saga and have already featured films with multiple Spider-Men and legacy X-Men recastings. Films like “Everything Everywhere All At Once” are telling Oscar-winning multiverse stories. The Season 2 premiere might end with Peacemaker fighting and killing an alternate version of himself, but Gunn assured that the season was not just looking to join the multiverse trend.

“It’s not really a multiverse,” Gunn explained. “It’s really one other dimension that is parallel to our own world — and it’s much more contemplative. I love ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ and seeing all those billions of Deadpools and all the different permutations, and that’s a very fun thing. But that’s not what this is. This is more literary. It’s more like Philip Roth’s ‘The Counterlife’ than it is like ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.'”

He finished: “It’s about one other dimension, where Peacemaker is confronted with the possibility of things he never had. He’s staring the loss of things he never had straight in the face, and seeing a life that other people have. That is common to many of us, what he was robbed of in this universe and existentially trying to come to grips with that and what he’s going to do about it.”

“Peacemaker” Season 2 releases new episodes Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on HBO Max.

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