Peacemaker’s Salvation Planet Twist Explained By DC’s James Gunn

The following post contains spoilers for all of “Peacemaker” season 2.

One of the best things James Gunn did with “Peacemaker” season 2 was to make it feel like both an integral part of the DC Universe and a great follow-up to the first season. Story-wise, the second season continues to follow Christopher Smith (John Cena) as he tries to grow and learn from his previous mistakes in the hopes of becoming a better person (rather than remaining a tool for violence).

At the same time, season 2 has major repercussions for the future of the DCU, starting with Lex Luthor’s (Nicholas Hoult) short but crucial cameo (which is clearly laying the groundwork for his role in “Man of Tomorrow”). More than just a brief appearance to remind those watching about an actor who also showed up in that other thing they saw, Luthor is pivotal to the final third of the season. Indeed, his goons end up discovering “Salvation,” a prison planet in another dimension that A.R.G.U.S. head honcho Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) intends to use as a place to send metahumans when they become inconvenient.

Though clearly a prison planet, and thematically a very timely plot point, Gunn doesn’t think Flag and A.R.G.U.S. necessarily see it as that. (Granted, they’re pretty good at kidding themselves.) Speaking with BobaTalks, Gunn acknowledged that Salvation is home to some scary creatures (which can be heard in the “Peacemaker” season 2 finale), much like in DC’s comics. “It’s not meant, really, as a punishment,” he explained. “It’s just to get them the hell away from our planet so that they quit bothering us and breaking out of prison and causing mayhem.”

“They’re sending them to a place that, you know, is maybe ethically unsound to be choosing to do that in the first place, because you’re ignoring what a judge and jury has convicted your peers of,” Gunn continued. “But it wasn’t thought of as sending them someplace where they’re going to be eaten by monsters.”

Sure, this makes some sense, at least if you’re Rick Flag. Every comic book fan knows how completely useless prisons like Arkham Asylum, Belle Reve, or Blackgate are when it comes to housing criminals, given how easily they seem to break out of these facilities. And yet, despite Gunn’s best efforts to play down the political nature of DCU titles like “Superman” and “Peacemaker” (so far as their ties to real world events and movements is concerned), the fact that the U.S. government’s response to supervillains breaking out of prison is illegally deporting them to another dimension — just like Luthor did to his political enemies in Gunn’s “Superman” — absolutely sounds like a punishment (or, at the very least, an egregious case of execution by omission).

That aside, the planet Salvation has a long and important history in DC’s comics. Hence, it’s likely that it will play an equally pivotal role in the future of the DCU, particularly when it comes to Flag and A.R.G.U.S.’ machinations.

“Peacemaker” is currently streaming on HBO Max.