Peacemaker Season 3 remains unconfirmed, and John Cena is not pretending otherwise. The actor says he understands why James Gunn, now overseeing the entire DC franchise with Peter Safran, has more urgent heroes demanding attention.
Asked by Josh Horowitz on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast whether audiences had seen the last of Christopher Smith, Cena replied, “You need a different guy in this chair,” apparently referring to Gunn. He also confirmed that he has not worn the Peacemaker costume since the second season finished filming.
That does not mean Cena has lost interest. “When I put that helmet on, I told James, I’m like, ‘Dude, I’ll put this helmet on as long as you need me to,’” he said. “He makes me a better performer, so I love being around him.”
The enthusiasm is clear. The employment schedule is less so.
Why is Peacemaker no longer Gunn’s main priority?
Cena traced the series back to a much narrower period in Gunn’s career. After directing Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy films, Gunn moved to DC for 2021’s The Suicide Squad, which introduced Cena as Christopher Smith, a violent mercenary with a highly selective understanding of peace.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted production across Hollywood. According to Cena, Gunn had one corner of DC available to him and enough spare time to expand it.
“He had one crew to mess around with: the Suicide Squad,” Cena said. “And then COVID hit, and he was really bored, so he wrote Peacemaker.”
The first season premiered in 2022. By the time the eight-episode second season arrived on HBO Max on August 21, 2025, Gunn’s job had changed considerably. He and Peter Safran had become co-chairmen of DC Studios, responsible for rebuilding the connected DC Universe across film and television.
That assignment includes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the rest of DC’s expensive inventory. A helmeted antihero who insults nearly everyone in the room must now wait his turn, a sentence that would probably offend him deeply.
Cena agrees DC’s biggest heroes come first
Cena described Gunn’s expanded role as gaining access to “a whole box of toys.” With that access comes the less playful work of deciding which properties receive money, production slots and executive attention.
“Because you get the whole box of toys, you have to address the really valuable ones first, and I understand that,” Cena said, referring to major characters including Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.
“I’m not in a leadership spot, but if I was, I’d be making those plays first,” he added. “That’s OK.”
Gunn and Safran have already begun that wider project through titles including Creature Commandos and Superman. Their positions also survived a major corporate overhaul. Paramount completed its $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6, creating Skydance under chief executive David Ellison. The Associated Press valued the transaction at nearly $111 billion when debt was included.
The combined company controls brands and operations including DC, Warner Bros., HBO, Paramount and CBS. Its leadership announcement confirmed that Gunn and Safran would remain in charge of DC Studios. Ellison called the closing “a historic day” for the company and the industry, which is the traditional corporate description for an event involving many lawyers and several billion dollars.
Could Peacemaker return without a third season?
Gunn said after the Season 2 finale that there were “no current plans for a third season,” according to TheWrap. Crucially, he did not rule out using Peacemaker elsewhere in the DC Universe.
That distinction matters because the second season did more than continue Christopher Smith’s individual story. Gunn wrote all eight episodes and directed three, using the series to establish characters and concepts intended for the wider franchise.
The finale left Smith imprisoned on Salvation, a prison world that Gunn has described as important to his broader plans. His former teammates, meanwhile, formed Checkmate. TheWrap reported that the upcoming Lanterns series connects with that storyline.
Gunn said Checkmate and Salvation would be “instrumental in the overarching story” of his DCU. He has also called Peacemaker “really important to me,” linking his feelings about the character to his late father.
The available evidence therefore points less toward a clean cancellation than a possible change in format. Smith, Checkmate and Salvation could reappear in another series, a film or a future crossover before anyone formally orders a third season.
Gunn offered one small signal on August 30 when a fan asked about another run of episodes. His response was a thinking-face emoji. CinemaBlend correctly cautioned that this was not confirmation. Emojis can communicate many things, but they have yet to qualify as production contracts.
Where Cena stands after Season 2
For now, Cena appears comfortable leaving the decision with Gunn. His comments contain no suggestion that negotiations have started, scripts exist or filming is being planned. They simply establish that he remains willing to return.
Season 2 ended more than three years after the first season debuted, so the franchise already has experience with long pauses. The difference now is that Gunn must balance Peacemaker against a full slate of DC projects while the studio’s new corporate owner considers how its film and streaming brands fit together.
Cena’s interview arrived as he promoted Matchbox The Movie, which premiered globally on Apple TV on October 9, 2026. That project gives him another action franchise while Christopher Smith remains stranded on Salvation, awaiting either rescue or an executive calendar opening.
No announcement has followed Cena’s remarks. A standalone continuation is still possible, but Gunn has built several routes for the character to return without placing a large “Season 3” label on the project. Cena, at least, seems ready whenever the helmet is required again.
