In what has become a hotbed for online water cooler conversations, Peacemaker Season 2 remains the talk of the town after last week’s big reveal about the pocket dimension most of the story has taken place in so far. While some headlines are more unserious kneejerk reactions than others to its weekly revelations, the direction of DC Studios under James Gunn remains a focal point of these discussions. In his effort to withhold major reveals as the show approaches its finale, Gunn may not have anticipated that fans would quickly catch on to the oddities within Christopher Smith’s pocket dimension.
Speaking with GQ earlier this week. Gunn divulged some behind-the-scenes details in the wake of the sixth episode of Peacemaker, “Ignorance Is Chris.” In the aptly titled episode, it’s revealed that Christopher Smith’s “best dimension ever”—where he, his father, and brother are heralded as heroes—is actually DC Universe’s take on Earth X. In the briefest of terms, Earth X is a parallel dimension from the comics where Nazi Germany ultimately won World War II, taking over the world in the process. And as such, Chris’ white supremacist father in our dimension fit right in as the de facto superhero in Earth X.
The episode concludes with Chris in shock, realizing that he never noticed the absence of Black people in the dimension where he had been isolating himself. Meanwhile, his friend Adebayo has a scene reminiscent of season one, where she flees from a group of white people down a road lined with mailboxes that, at first glance, resemble white crosses. As they spot her walking on the sidewalk, they yell, “One got out. A Black.”
While fans clued in on something being amiss in Peacemaker early on this season—speculation about the all-white background cast in scenes in the pocket dimension had people speculating as early as episode 3 that the twist of the season would be tied to an Earth X-style reveal, Gunn told GQ that the folks he previewed season two to (of mixed company) were none the wiser.
“I think everybody online noticed what was happening, but also because they were discussing it. I showed the whole season to people before that and they did not notice at all,” Gunn said. “And it wasn’t all white friends, it was people of color, white people, everybody who just didn’t notice that all the extras were white every time we went to Earth X.”
Gunn went on to characterize the revelation and those who might not have noticed it by acknowledging that the show’s cutting back and forth between dimensions served as a buffer for casual viewers, allowing them not to notice that the background extras in Earth X weren’t people of color.
“Once one person notices, ‘Hey, wait a second, why are these all white background actors in one place, and then a very diverse crowd in the other place? They shoot in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s not a place that’s known for there being no Black people.’ And the minute you see that, you’re like, ‘Oh, shit. Yeah, he’s in a not so great place,'” Gunn said.
Gunn went on to add more texture to the sensitive nature of everything, given the episode’s climax after the reveal with Adebayo being chased down a street by a crowd of angry white people, furious at the sight of a person of color simply existing. “What happens at the end, because you don’t want to treat it lightly and there’s a humorous aspect to it, but it’s also very scary,” Gunn said of the moment. “It was about the way we handled all that.”
Part of that involved sitting down with Danielle Brooks, who plays Adebayo, to discuss things before filming. “Listen, we’re dealing with a very sensitive subject. We’re dealing with racism and at the same time, there’s humor in this episode. And so, you’re dealing with something very delicate and yet we’re not being delicate about it—but I don’t think we’re not being delicate in a non-thoughtful way. I think we’re being thoughtful about it,” Gunn said. “When I was first writing the episodes and I first finished the episode, I sent it to Danielle Brooks and we had a big conversation. I wanted to make sure she was okay with everything.”
Although the Earth X reveal has become the talk of the town now that it’s out in the open, Gunn did tease that Peacemaker episode 8 is another proud moment for him as its season finale with more revelations about Earth X not being so cut and dry as the Nazi dimension (while admitting in the same breath how odd that sounds to say aloud), as well as another potential cameo to come with Peacemaker‘s finale.
As with everything DC Studios has been doing as of late, folks will just have to wait and see what Gunn has in store when they tune in to Peacemaker tonight and check out the penultimate episode of the season.