From the outset, this article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the finale of Peacemaker’s premiere season. Do not read ahead if you have not seen the finale, or if you are trying to avoid spoilers.
As the final reel of Peacemaker played out fans of the series were given a huge quadruple cameo that saw four members of the Justice League turning up just after the climactic battle of the show. During the scene, Jason Momoa and Erza Miller appeared as their DC characters Aquaman and The Flash respectively. While it seemed to some that this appearance just coincidentally featured speaking parts for only the two Justice League members who have their own movies being released this year, John Cena has now offered his view on the inclusion of some of the DCEU’s biggest heroes in the series.
Cena made his first appearance as Christopher Smith in James Gunn’s version of The Suicide Squad, and the series caught up with the character following the events of the movie and changed exactly who everyone thought he was in the process. With the series coming to a close with a huge audience for HBO Max, those that turned in were treated to a barnstorming finale that delivered pretty much everything it promised and more. Speaking to Fandom, Cena explained how the inclusion of the Justice League characters was very important both from the perspective of Smith and from that of the show itself to ground it firmly in the DCEU. Cena said:
“I’m forever grateful [to Momoa and Miller], because they did us a huge solid by doing that. And they were able to put themselves in the limelight and get everybody talking, but they do so in a way where the joke’s not on them. And they did it for the good of our show. Whether that was their intention or not, it really, really, really, really helped us, especially after eight episodes of people being excited about the show, to put a stamp on it. It lets everybody know that there’s a new player in the DC Universe and that this is what’s going on. ‘These folks are now on an equal playing field, wow!’ That’s my takeaway from that. I think that was a very important moment for us. And of course, it gives everybody a whole lot of stuff to talk about and James Gunn is really good about making people talk about stuff! So mission accomplished in that regard.”
The DCEU Is Even More Disjointed by the Justice League’s Peacemaker Cameos
Unlike Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, which set out with a very clear view of starting small and building up to big ensemble pieces like the Avengers movies, Warner Bros. attempted to go straight into the fast lane with Zack Snyder’s vision. Unfortunately, due to circumstances that all fell apart quite quickly and left behind was a strange mish-mash of movies that may or may not be connected. Now that the Justice League has been featured in the Peacemaker series, it doesn’t really help to clarify anything.
The Suicide Squad was not intended as a sequel to the David Ayer Suicide Squad movie even though it did share a few characters such as Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. However, Ayer’s movie did feature Ben Affleck’s Batman, putting it in the DCEU, and while The Suicide Squad did not feature any Justice League members, their appearance in Peacemaker has also put that movie in the same space. How many of these movies are still connected after the events of The Flash, which is rumored to be some kind of reset on the DCEU, we will find out later this year, long before Peacemaker returns for a second season.