Warning: Contains spoilers for Peacemaker episode 5.
James Gunn refused to allow HBO Max to send out the Peacemaker season 1, episode 8 finale to critics and reviewers, which implies that he is hiding a huge twist or big reveal in Peacemaker’s final episode. When a show is sent out for review, it is common for the entire season to be sent at once, or for the show to be released to critics in chunks throughout the season run. For Peacemaker, reviewers only received the first seven episodes of the eight-episode first season, however.
In a recent interview about Peacemaker, James Gunn said that HBO had wanted to put the full eight episodes out to reviewers but that he wouldn’t let them. To explain this, Gunn said, “There's just too many things happen in episode eight that I just could not let it get out there. It would absolutely be spoiled.” While most reviewers can be relied on to keep spoilers to themselves until release day, there is always a risk of a reveal being made to the public early once the episode is out there. Pirated versions of review copies are a sad reality, and keeping big reveals from being spoiled has become a more and more difficult task, with even members of production and cast sometimes accidentally spoiling things. This, in turn, might be part of why even the cast and crew are largely being kept in the dark about Peacemaker’s final moments as Steve Agee revealed in an interview with Screen Rant.
With James Gunn making it clear that something big happens in the Peacemaker finale, it is natural to try and guess what that might be. While a Peacemaker’s tragic death might seem like a possibility, Gunn has already said that Peacemaker season 2 is likely to happen, so unless someone else is taking up the mantle, the death of Chris Smith seems unlikely (however, a potential fakeout as with The Suicide Squad is always on the cards). With that in mind, here’s every theory on what James Gunn might be hiding in the Peacemaker finale.
One possibility is that the Peacemaker finale helps to set up the future of the DCEU for the Peacemaker characters. This would fit in with Gunn’s previous set up of the Peacemaker TV series in the post-credits scene for The Suicide Squad. Bringing in a big hero would help to establish this. One possibility would be for an existing member of the DCEU Justice League to turn up and offer to be involved somehow in a way that could lead to John Cena’s Peacemaker appearing in other big DCEU titles and getting to be the hero he wishes he was (and might have been before, based on Peacemaker episode 5’s Kite-Man Easter egg). While James Gunn would likely want to keep a big-name cameo a secret, Peacemaker episode 8 might also introduce an entirely new hero to the DCEU in a way that will more directly help to establish Peacemaker season 2. While the possibilities here might be endless, given James Gunn’s habit of pulling out lesser-known heroes, a Peacemaker episode 5 reference to the country of Nyasir and a connection to Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) could hint at the metahuman Redemption coming to the DCEU.
Protagonist deaths are a long-standing tradition as a way to make a big impact with a season finale, and James Gunn would obviously want that kept secret. For Peacemaker, the list of possible candidates to die in the finale that would create the desired emotional reaction is fairly short. John Economos (Steve Agee) and Vigilante (Freddie Stroma) are both more comedic centers and their deaths, while sad, might come too out of left-field. Peacemaker is unlikely to die, and Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks) has only been introduced in this series and the narrative has not provided much that would support her dying for the cause.
If a protagonist dies in the Peacemaker finale, then the most likely choice is Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland). Her narrative is built around the emotional distance that she keeps from others, she spends her time off alone and refuses to connect on a deeper level. However, in Peacemaker episode 5 she starts to let her guard down more and develops a friendship with the team. In episode 1, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) warned Leota against empathy as it can be deadly in black-ops, and in episode 2 Harcourt warned Leota that having emotional connections around would be dangerous. These warnings, combined with Harcourt’s episode 5 actions, could signal that she is breaking her own rules in a way that will eventually lead to her death in Peacemaker episode 8's finale.
Viola Davis originally appeared as Amanda Waller in David Ayer’s 2016 Suicide Squad and was one of the few who returned for The Suicide Squad in 2021. She was not expected to appear in Peacemaker at all but made a brief appearance in the first episode in a video call with Leota. While her appearance was cryptic, it suggested that she was secretly behind a lot of what was going on, might be covertly trying to recruit White Dragon to Task Force X, and could eventually be revealed as a major antagonist for the series. All of this means that it is possible that she will not only appear in the finale but ultimately be killed. While Waller is ethically and morally suspect and Peacemaker might have good reason to kill her, it would naturally drive a wedge between him and Leota, making Leota question a lot of the way that she sees the world. This could be a solid setup for Peacemaker season 2, and also raises the question of who would replace Waller within ARGUS in this situation.
Throughout Peacemaker, information about the Butterflies has been restricted. Little is known beyond their apparent metahuman capabilities, the fact that there are suspected Butterflies all across the planet, and that Murn is a Butterfly who appears to be working against his species. While the information provided suggests that the Butterflies are seeking world domination, little has been shown that indicates that they want anything more than to exist on Earth. Their only larger moves that have been announced have been related to taking over politicians to push better climate change legislation, an act that will help to protect the Earth from the damage that humans are already doing which is damaging the populations of native butterflies. Given that Peacemaker sees Murn and Waller working against the Butterflies, Peacemaker season 1, episode 8 might reveal that the Butterflies are actually mostly peaceful except when threatened and it is really Waller and Murn who are the antagonists, working to destroy a species that simply needs a new home. This could lead the rest of the ARGUS team to go rogue to do what they see as morally right, an action that would echo the choices made by Economos and Harcourt in The Suicide Squad.
The Flash, releasing November 4, 2022, is set to open up the DCEU multiverse as Flash goes back in time and finds himself in a timeline with Michael Keaton’s portrayal of Batman, making Tim Burton’s Batman movies canonical within the DCEU. However, it is possible that James Gunn’s Peacemaker finale secret could be that he is going to beat The Flash to the punch. Several clues and retcons have already indicated that Peacemaker (and potentially The Suicide Squad) might take place in a different timeline within the DCEU. This would help to explain why Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne cameo from the end of Suicide Squad was never paid off, why a new logo for the Wayne Foundation appears, and why Peacemaker makes reference to Batman’s no-kill rule when the rule was ditched by Zack Snyder in the main DCEU timeline.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe started playing with the multiverse not long ago, so it makes a degree of sense that DC is introducing their own version into the extended universe. Doing so would help them to work around a lot of the different continuity questions that have already arisen from occurrences such as the release of the Justice League Snyder Cut. If the DCEU confirms its own multiverse ahead of The Flash then it would open up the possibility of the Arrowverse and shows like Titans and Doom Patrol that have explored ARGUS and the multiverse to being included in the main series in some way. If this is indeed the big reveal that James Gunn is hiding in Peacemaker episode 8, then it would make sense that he wants to guard it against spoilers as it would change the makeup and understanding of the DCEU before The Flash could be released.
Peacemaker releases new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.
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