The Suicide Squad is at the centre of viewers’ canon questions again as Peacemaker Season 2 landed on Max (August 21–22, 2025) and addresses continuity in its opening minutes. The premiere of Peacemaker Season 2 begins with a Previously in the DCU card, immediately reframing where Season 1 sits and what carries forward into the rebooted timeline after Superman.
The Suicide Squad matters here because the series uses it as the bridge: events referenced on-screen in Season 2 are treated as operative history for the DCU, even if not every detail from the original DCEU cut is reproduced beat-for-beat.
For audiences, the immediate stake is simple: which characters, gags, and consequences from The Suicide Squad and Season 1 “count” now that Season 2 is clearly positioned inside the DCU?
And how does that affect the show’s reworked Justice League moment, the presence of the Justice Gang seeded via Superman, and connective tissue like Rick Flag Sr.? The Suicide Squad’s legacy is being refined rather than erased, and Season 2 explains how.
Peacemaker Season 2 makes DCU canon explicit
Season 2 opens with Previously in the DCU, then swaps Season 1’s finale gag, where Peacemaker meets the Justice League, for a recap that now shows the Justice Gang (as seen in Superman). This isn’t a throwaway edit. ADR and reshot material reframe who shows up after Project Butterfly. As per a GamesRadar+ report dated August 22, 2025, James Gunn stated,
“When we were making Peacemaker season 1, it was at an uncertain time in DC films, where nobody knew what was going to happen. It was not really the DCEU, because people were planning to rewrite everything with The Flash. And so there were no rules. I just had to make it fit into the DCU, and it really is pretty close.”
The same report confirms silhouettes and new lines establishing the Justice Gang’s presence in continuity, aligning Peacemaker with the lineup seeded elsewhere in Chapter One. Polygon and other outlets describe this as a clean replacement of the Snyder-era cameo with the DCU team.
TheWrap further records Gunn’s line about the recap logic: as per TheWrap report dated August 22, 2025, Gunn stated,
“Basically, what you saw last season was all accurate. But maybe there are a couple of things that are not so accurate and one of those is there’s no Justice League, obviously..”
Where does The Suicide Squad fit now?
The Suicide Squad remains the source text for these characters, but Season 2 clarifies a pragmatic canon rule: references carried forward in new DCU stories are DCU canon. Unreferenced elements can be left behind. As per a GamesRadar+ report dated August 22, 2025, Gunn remarked,
“There are references to things that happened in the past. And those references then become canon in the DCU because we mention them.”
Marketing in July already indicated this direction: trailers and interviews suggested Season 2 would acknowledge The Suicide Squad by reference while aligning with Superman’s Justice Gang. Early coverage flagged that the premiere’s recap would update who arrives after the Season 1 finale, and that Season 2 is fully DCU canon.
For audiences, the practical takeaway is clear: anything Season 2 invokes, from Peacemaker’s killing of Rick Flag Jr. in The Suicide Squad to ARGUS relationships, “counts.” What isn’t invoked is free to fall away without contradiction. Pre-release feature also captured Gunn’s stance on stray cross-project cameos: as per Den of Geek report dated July 21, 2025, Gunn stated,
“They’re not canon! I hate it!”
It's a line he used to draw a boundary around pre-reboot appearances that don’t fit the new plan.
What this retcon means for Justice League and future DCU titles
Season 1’s on-screen “Justice League” interaction is, for DCU purposes, now the Justice Gang, matching the roster established through Superman and referenced again in Peacemaker Season 2. This is less about erasing The Suicide Squad and more about harmonizing what viewers see across Chapter One projects.
Rick Flag Sr. (introduced in Creature Commandos and featured in Superman) functions as connective tissue across titles into Peacemaker Season 2, tying the moral fallout from The Suicide Squad (the death of Flag Jr.) to current DCU stakes. As per the GQ report dated August 22, 2025, Frank Grillo, who plays Rick Flag Sr., stated,
“I’m the head of A.R.G.U.S., so I'm able to manipulate whatever I need to manipulate to get to Peacemaker. Flag is now behaving differently, and it’s more about intellect than physicality. And the reason why Gunn gave Superman a shorter theatrical run is because there’s some real important stuff in both places that has to coincide.”
That situates ARGUS, and by extension, consequences originating in The Suicide Squad, squarely inside the DCU’s forward path.
In conclusion, Season 2 establishes a canon-by-reference model. The Suicide Squad matters whenever its characters, choices, or fallout are invoked on-screen. Season 2 does this repeatedly while swapping the old JL gag for the DCU’s Justice Gang to keep the wires untangled.
Stay tuned for more updates.
THE SUICIDE SQUAD, Peacemaker vs Bloodsport (with Polka-Dot Man, King Shark, Ratcatcher 2). Photo: © Warner Bros. Entertainment / Courtesy Youtube/@Warner Bros. Entertainment.