Peacemaker season 2: Who are the Sons of Liberty? Explained

In the shadow of a warped American flag, John Cena’s Christopher Smith’s Peacemaker stands in a blood-soaked Evergreen town square. In Peacemaker Season 2 (released August 21, 2025, on Max), he neutralized a squad of masked insurgents, the Sons of Liberty, who nearly detonated a high-tech explosive at the local DMV. The crowd hails him, but their colonial tricorn hats and cries of “liberty” unsettle.

In this alternate reality, a N*zi-ruled Earth-X, the Sons of Liberty, aren’t the comic-book villains Chris assumes; they’re resistance fighters battling a fascist regime. James Gunn’s second season, an eight-episode arc streaming weekly on Thursdays through October 9, 2025, redefines these DC antagonists as desperate heroes, forcing Chris to question his own violent patriotism.

Gunn, DC Studios co-CEO, writes every episode and directs five, building on The Suicide Squad (2021). After killing Rick Flag Jr., Chris faces A.R.G.U.S. scrutiny under new director Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo). A botched experiment catapults him to Earth-X, where his father, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick), is a revered figure, and Chris is a star of the Top Trio, a regime hit squad. 

Returning cast includes Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, Steve Agee as John Economos, and Freddie Stroma as Vigilante and new faces like Sol Rodríguez (Sasha Bordeaux), David Denman (operative Thomas Black), and Tim Meadows (handler Langston Fleury) join the crew. With Eagly the eagle in tow, this multiverse saga blends biting satire, raw emotion, and Gunn’s signature chaos.

From comic zealots to resistance icons: The Sons of Liberty’s Earth-X role

The Sons of Liberty in DC comics are far from heroic. Introduced in Superman Vol. 2 (1991) by Jerry Ordway, they’re a paramilitary cult founded by Major Charles Holcraft, obsessed with “restoring” America’s constitutional roots. Their campaign against the government, terrorist bombings, assassinations, and anti-alien propaganda, draws Superman into the conversation, targeting him as a danger to sovereignty. The group have an operative, Agent Liberty (Benjamin Lockwood, Superman), who combines neonationalism and tech.

He would be loaned away for appearances in Supergirl (1996) and Action Comics as the aligned neo-N*zi extremist. The group's name is derived from rabble rousers in Boston circa 1770, a great cover for fascism draped in patriotic language. The idea of a more patriotic response versus liberal responses to fascism is a point of interest in the post-Crisis material. 

In Peacemaker season 2, Gunn inverts this legacy, drawing from DC’s Freedom Fighters (1976), where Earth-X’s N*zi victory spawns resistance heroes like Uncle Sam. Episode 3, "Another Rick Up My Sleeve” shows the Sons storming Evergreen’s DMV with a sci-fi explosive, branded as terrorists by Chris’s Top Trio. He guns them down, unaware they’re fighting the regime’s ethnic purges.

Episode 5, flips the script: the Sons, led by everyman Jerry (John Nania), are Earth-X’s last hope, their colonial garb a nod to rebellion. Alternate Vigilante, a Sons recruit, aids their cause, revealed in a tense Episode 6 standoff, “Ignorance Is Chris”. After taking control of the DMV, one of the Sons shout-

“We, the Sons of Liberty, are united in fighting our oppressors. They have ruled all of us under their corrupt thumb for long enough. That’s why we’re going to continue to destroy one governmental agency a week until our demands are met.”

Here, Leota Adebayo (Brooks) sees Earth-X’s horrors, erased diversity, swastika-laden flags, and allying with the Sons to breach the multiverse. Gunn’s reimagining makes them a mirror: comics’ villains become TV’s freedom fighters, challenging Chris to see beyond his helmeted dogma. This ties to real-world debates on patriotism’s misuse, grounded in DC’s multiverse lore.

Cena delivers a career-defining turn as Chris, shedding wrestler bravado for a man broken by guilt. Post-Suicide Squad, he’s hunted by A.R.G.U.S. and haunted by killing Rick Flag Jr. and his brother, Keith. On Earth-X, where Auggie (Patrick) is a fascist hero, Chris’s Top Trio role glorifies his father’s bigotry.

Episode 4, sees him confess to Harcourt (Holland), “I’m my father’s son,” before a Sons ambush cuts him off. Gunn crafts romance amid chaos—Chris courts an alternate Harcourt, only to face her regime-loyal double. Grillo’s Flag Sr. drives the hunt, forcing Economos (Agee) into spy work with Fleury (Meadows), their awkward rapport sparking laughs.

The ensemble elevates the stakes. Brooks’ Leota, confronting Earth-X’s racism, anchors the heart, her Waller exposé fallout fueling her fire. Holland’s Harcourt and Stroma’s Vigilante clash with electric chemistry; his unhinged quips meet her lethal calm.

Agee’s Economos, post-season 1 confidence, stumbles with Meadows’s sardonic Fleury. Rodríguez’s Bordeaux and Denman’s Black add intrigue, while cameos, Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner, and an uncredited Joel Kinnaman as Flag doubles hint at DCU expansion. Gunn’s soundtrack, led by Foxy Shazam’s “Oh Lord,” fuels visceral fights: Chris’s Peace-Cycle tears through rebels, but self-doubt cracks his bravado. This “soft reboot” bridges DCEU to DCU, blending satire with soul-searching.

Stream Peacemaker season 2 on Max, with episodes dropping Thursdays from August 21 to October 9, 2025. 

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