Peacemaker season 2 nearly featured Deadpool in a blink-and-you-miss-it gag that James Gunn says he actively pursued. During a virtual press briefing tied to the finale, Gunn confirmed he talked directly to Ryan Reynolds about sliding Deadpool into the Quantum Unfolding Chamber montage.
The idea was simple. A door opens. Wade is inside one of the off-world rooms. Paperwork and studio approvals stopped it. Peacemaker season 2 uses that same Chamber sequence to widen the show’s scope and to link its cliffhanger to the next wave of DCU stories.
The finale strands Chris Smith on Salvation, the hostile prison world set up by Rick Flag Sr., with Lex Luthor in the shadows. It also pushes Adebayo, Harcourt, Economos and Adrian into a new cell called Checkmate with Sasha Bordeaux.
The core cast, led by John Cena, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, Steve Agee and Freddie Stroma, carries the chapter while the multiverse door gag underlines how elastic the format already is.
Where James Gunn confirms it, and what he said
As per Entertainment Weekly's report dated October 11, 2025, Gunn contextualized the pitch before giving the line, stating,
“I wanted them to open the door and see Deadpool in a room.”
He described it as a quick visual beat inside the Quantum Unfolding Chamber and not a full crossover scene. Gunn then explained the outreach and interest:
“I talked to Ryan Reynolds about it, he wanted to do it.”
The exchange happened while planning the finale montage that shows multiple doors to other places. Gunn spelt out the roadblock:
“We would have had to go through some pretty big hoops to do that. That’s all anybody’s going to talk about now is f*cking Deadpool in the other room.”
He joked that mentioning it would hijack discourse, then steered focus back to the story turn that sets up what happens next. Peacemaker season 2 uses its last minutes to point at the wider DCU map.
What the Deadpool cameo would have been in Peacemaker season 2
The placement was the Quantum Unfolding Chamber run, where agents open doors into other rooms. The beat was designed as a single cut. Door opens. Deadpool looks up. Door closes. It fits the montage language, which already jumps between rooms to imply scale.
Peacemaker season 2 builds that sequence around active missions that branch the cast into different lanes. Chris is pushed toward Salvation. Rick Flag Sr. advances the plan to warehouse metahumans off-world. Lex Luthor is a quiet enabler behind resources and access.
On the home roster, Adebayo, Harcourt, Economos and Adrian align with Sasha Bordeaux under the Checkmate banner to operate outside A R G U S. The scene’s tone is quick and dry, so a wordless Deadpool glance would have landed as a visual wink, not a universe merger. What cut instead was a small surprise cameo by Jared Haibon as an A R G U S agent, along with an improvised cocaine bit in a lab corridor.
Peacemaker season 2 uses these flashes to keep the rhythm brisk while moving the chessboard into place.
Why it did not happen, and what it signals for the DCU
As per Entertainment Weekly report dated October 11, 2025, Gunn said the Reynolds idea stalled on clearances, likeness approvals and brand management that sit across Disney and Warner. That is the “pretty big hoops” problem he flagged. The point is less about any future Marvel and DC mix and more about what the sequence already proves.
Peacemaker season 2 can stage multiverse sight gags without breaking its own frame. The finale’s real payload is the status map. Chris on Salvation. Rick Flag Sr. is running a prison world concept. Lex Luthor is moving pieces off-screen. Checkmate forming as a counterweight led by familiar allies.
Gunn framed those threads as hooks that will surface across upcoming DCU projects like Lanterns and animation, rather than a fast-tracked Peacemaker season 3.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Ryan Reynolds enjoys the pre match atmosphere prior to the UEFA EURO 2024 quarter-final match between Netherlands and Türkiye at Olympiastadion on July 06, 2024 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Boris Streubel - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)