Despite taking a second seat to the MCU for the past several years, the DCEU has finally found its groove and reached a point where it can compete with the Disney-owned juggernaut. The Batman has reached a worldwide success at the box office and among critics, while some of DC's other recent projects have been dubbed some of their best material in years. Such projects include films like Shazam, Joker, and The Suicide Squad, all of which helped bring DC out of the darkness and win back the fans who had come to question them.
With all of this success, the DCEU has taken a gamble by extending from the cinematic world into the televised world, launching the spin-off on HBO Max, Peacemaker, about the antihero who kills for peace and who the world was introduced to in The Suicide Squad. Peacemaker (played by John Cena and directed by James Gunn) wasn't exactly who audiences expected to get his own spin-off series. Still, it paid off for DC as it became their top-rated project ever and an instant classic among fans. Even with how well-received the show was, James Gunn purposely left a lot of loose ends in the season finale in the hopes of getting to tie them up in a season 2. With season 2 now confirmed, there are a lot of questions that fans expect to have answered.
The Butterflies
The most obvious question that was not answered at the end of season 1 was what's going to happen to all The Butterflies? The alien species that fled to Earth because it had everything they needed to survive (except food) seemingly met their end when Peacemaker and Adebayo killed The Cow, therefore cutting off The Butterflies' food supply. Naturally, that would mean that all The Butterflies will eventually die off when they run out of food and starve to death. This is a rather gruesome fate, even for a show as graphic as Peacemaker. However, one of the last shots of the season 1 finale was Peacemaker feeding Goff (the Queen Butterfly) and seemingly trying to keep her as a pet.
The Cow might be dead, but prior to its death, it had been milked of a lot of food and shipped all over the world, so there very well might be mass stores of The Butterflies' food hidden somewhere. Season 2 could see Peacemaker trying to save Goff by finding said food. Another question regarding The Butterflies is if there aren't storages of food and they all die, does that mean all the people they're inhabiting die? Episode 3 showed on a map that Butterflies are all over the globe, and that's a lot of dead people.
Adebayo/Amanda Waller Fallout
With Adebayo admitting to the team that she was the daughter of the infamous Amanda Waller, it immediately put her on the outs with her group of superfriends. Luckily, she was able to redeem herself by killing The Cow and then publicly admitting to the world that her mother was in charge of Task Force X, sending criminals to do deadly missions in exchange for time off sentences. While it was a great moment that allowed the team, and the audience, to forgive Adebayo, it opened up a can of worms on what the fallout will be between Adebayo and her mother, as well as how the public will react to Amanda Waller's actions. It's safe to say that Waller will face some sort of repercussion, but with the character being played by coveted actress Viola Davis, it's hard to imagine her role in the DCEU being reduced too much.
Peacemaker's Relationships
Peacemaker may be a superhero show, but the underlying message was about relationships. More importantly, Peacemaker felt he had never been capable of maintaining one (except with Eagly, of course). He had no best friends, no significant other, and his relationship with his father was possibly the worst father/son relationship ever.
That being said, Peacemaker finally dealt with his emotions and inner turmoil by killing his father and allowing himself to accept friendship from Adebayo and Vigilante. The series also hinted at a potential romantic relationship between Peacemaker and Harcourt and a haunting relationship from the ghost of his father. Fans will have to wait for season 2 to see if Peacemaker can keep the relationships going.
Judomaster
Seriously, what was up with this? It almost felt as though Judomaster was thrown in as a cameo since he mostly disappeared after his role in episode 3. He was revealed to be a true ally of The Butterflies and was thoroughly heartbroken when he discovered them all dead. Will he return for season 2 and seek revenge, or will he be written out and forgotten (kind of like he was for most of the first season)? Fans certainly hope he returns and that he has his trusty bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos while he does.