Warning! MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Peacemaker season 1 finale.

The finale to DC’s action-packed and surprisingly emotional Peacemaker series has landed on HBO Max and contains some astonishing surprises, including a cameo appearance from a major DC character that was filmed by Marvel. James Gunn’s spinoff to his own The Suicide Squad was the first TV series to be set in the DCEU. It follows the adventures of John Cena’s morally complicated crimefighter as he learns how to make friends and influence people while foiling a complex alien plot and coming to terms with the impact of his traumatic childhood.

Towards the end of the Peacemaker season 1 finale, after Peacemaker and his friends have finally defeated the butterflies, the team encounters four distinctly recognizable silhouetted figures. They are the DCEU versions of Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Aquaman. Peacemaker is in no way happy to see them and chastises the Justice Leaguers for being late, since they missed all the brutal fighting and arrived quite a long time after Danielle Brooks’ Adebayo asked her mother, Amanda Waller, to send the Justice League as backup. Peacemaker also seizes the opportunity to aggressively reiterate his belief that Aquaman enjoys the sexual company of fish. At this point, it is revealed that Jason Momoa and Ezra Miller have actually returned to reprise their iconic characters. Momoa’s Aquaman expresses that he’s tired of people spreading rumors about his supposed predilection for sea creatures. The Flash responds by jokingly insisting that the rumor is true, which Aquaman dismisses with a reasonable “F*ck you, Barry”.

Related: Peacemaker Ending Explained: What The DC Cameo & Twist Return Really Mean

DC fans will no doubt be thrilled to learn that this already incredibly surprising sequence is even more surprising than it initially appears. According to a recent interview in Variety, this profane piece of fan service was at least partially filmed by the camera crew who are currently working on Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.3, which is also a James Gunn project. According to Gunn, this situation came about after the Peacemaker crew filmed Chukwudi Iwuji’s screen test for the Guardians Of The Galaxy threequel. Iwuji is playing a currently undisclosed role in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.3 and appeared in Peacemaker as butterfly-possessed black-ops team leader Clemson Murn. You can see Gunn’s exact remarks from the Variety article below.

Actually, Marvel shot [Ezra] for us, while we’re shooting “Guardians Vol. 3.”

Yeah, but I mean, Marvel owed DC, because the “Peacemaker” crew shot my screen test for Chukwudi for “Guardians Vol. 3.” And then we got Ezra with the “Guardians Vol. 3” crew.

Peacemaker Flash justice League Cameo Miller

Historically, Marvel and DC have always been rivals and instances of them working together are uncommon. Given that context, even this small amount of co-operation between the planet’s two largest providers of superhero content is enough to excite fans. Despite their rivalry, Marvel and DC have collaborated on a number of comic book projects, including 1974’s iconic Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man and the DC Vs. Marvel miniseries from 1996. However, it seems very unlikely that the creatives behind the MCU and DCEU will ever unite for a cinematic Marvel and DC co-production, despite the fact that both companies current explorations of the multiverse on film - including the upcoming Flash and Doctor Strange movies - provide a solid foundation on which to build such an event.

Peacemaker season 2 was recently ordered by HBO MAX, and James Gunn is reportedly developing a second The Suicide Squad spinoff for the streaming service. He is also currently hard at work on Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.3, the long-awaited final instalment in the Guardians trilogy. Hopefully, he’ll be helming many more exciting comic book projects in the future.

Next: Peacemaker Finally Confirms The DCEU's Real Thanos

Source: Variety

Key Release Dates