Peacemaker Season 2 Review

Peacemaker Season 2 retains the heart, gore, swearing, and sex of Season 1, shifting focus to themes of isolation and self-worth.

The first season of the show follows John Cena’s (Heads of State, Fast X) Christopher Smith, better known as Peacemaker, a disgraced superhero who set out to bring peace at any cost, but instead, often devolves into indiscriminate carnage. Peacemaker is conscripted into a black ops squad tasked with eliminating an otherworldly threat. In the process, he discovers kinship beyond the shadow of his abusive, white-supremacist father—only for their covert mission to be exposed in the turbulent season finale. In Season 2, Peacemaker stumbles into an alternate dimension where life is everything he wishes it could be. But this utopia only magnifies his losses and forces a reckoning with the guilt and trauma he can no longer outrun.

In the five episodes Warner Bros. made available, Peacemaker Season 2 scales back the action in favour of a fractured family drama. The tight-knit unit forged in Season 1 has splintered, leaving each character adrift and searching for a sense of worth. Harcourt (Jennifer Holland, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3), picks fights in bars as a test of her resolve. Adebayo (Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple, A Minecraft Movie) faces the fallout of a breakup after her partner rejects her pull toward a life in the field. Economos (Steve Agee, The Suicide Squad) wrestles with a job that pits his morality against his loyalty to friends. As for Peacemaker, what began as a caricature has evolved into a portrait of a man trapped between who he is, and who he wants to be.

Cena’s natural comic instincts remain intact, but this season grants him greater room for vulnerability. In particular, exploring how guilt can erode a person’s sense of self as profoundly as violence can. In episode 5, titled “Back to the Suture”, Peacemaker is faced with the question of whether this alternate dimension is where he truly belongs—wrestling to find a reason strong enough to anchor him in the real world.

Holland delivers a more hardened portrayal of Harcourt, enriched by flashbacks that provide deeper insight into her life before the events of Peacemaker Season 1. Her growth and development take on a much more central role this season.

Even at its most outrageous, Peacemaker Season 2’s focus on character prevents it from slipping into outright farce. The humour largely lands—though it occasionally leans on one too many butt jokes—but within the series’ emotional framework, even the silliness feels earned. Freddie Stroma (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) returns as endearingly hapless Vigilante. While his character arc lacks the depth of others, his innocent, playful wit injects a vital levity that keeps the show engaging and enjoyable. The show’s tempo rarely wavers, and while a few subplots lack the same pull, the core narrative remains consistently compelling.

Peacemaker Season 2 tempers the frenetic pace of its predecessor, opting instead for a reflective look at how people find, lose, and rebuild purpose.

Season 2 of Peacemaker will be available to stream on HBO Max (U.S.) from August 21, 2025, and on Sky Max & Now (U.K.) from August 22. New episodes will be released weekly, with the finale airing on October 9.