John Cena in “Peacemaker” Season 2.
HBO/Erin Sintoes
Peacemaker Season 2 is back with Episode 1, which contains a shocking scene with John Cena that explains why the series has a TV-MA rating.
The second season of DC Studios’ hit antihero series finds Peacemaker/Chris Smith (Cena) in a dark place, as he’s still haunted by the tragic death of his brother in his youth and by how he was forced to execute his father, Auggie (Robert Patrick), at the end of Season 1.
Also bothering Chris is his failed attempt at a romantic relationship with the now former ARGUS Agent Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), who lost her job after the events of Season 1.
Note: Spoilers are discussed throughout the rest of the article.
After learning from Emilia that their brief romantic dalliance was a mistake and that she wants to move on, Chris returns to his father’s home, where he now resides and snorts some hardcore substance that at first seems to give him hallucinations.
However, as Chris discovers, the people who suddenly show up in the flesh, quite literally, are real.
Suddenly, Chris finds himself — fully clothed — in the middle of an orgy in his living room where countless men and women are naked and having sex in a scene that is punctuated by graphic depictions of male and female full-frontal nudity.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – AUGUST 13: (L-R) Freddie Stroma, Nhut Le, David Denman, Anissa Matlock, Steve Agee, John Cena, Danielle Brooks, James Gunn, Jennifer Holland, Sol Rodriguez and Frank Grillo attend HBO’s “Peacemaker” Season 2 Premiere at AMC Lincoln Square Theater on August 13, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/WireImage)
WireImage
James Gunn Says There Was No Pushback From HBO Over The Scene
Peacemaker creator James Gunn — who writes all of the episodes in Season 2 and directs three of them, including Season 1 — said in a recent Zoom conversation that the show’s home, HBO, had no qualms about the orgy scene.
“It was really about dealing with HBO on it, and they didn’t give us any pushback,” Gunn said. “They just didn’t ever even mention it, so I guess they’re okay with it.”
It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that HBO didn’t raise any concerns about the scene. After all, the cable network and its streaming service, HBO Max, knew the hardcore nature of Peacemaker with the release of Season 1 — which was also rated TV-MA — mainly because of the graphic violence in the series and its rough language.
On top of that, Peacemaker is a spinoff series from Gunn’s 2021 DC antihero movie The Suicide Squad, which had an R rating.
Gunn and his longtime filmmaking collaborator, Peter Safran were hired as co-CEOs of Warner Bros.’ DC Studios division in 2022, where they were tasked with rebooting the DC Universe that extends across film and television in both live-action and animated capacities.
Gunn, of course, is also the writer and director of the first new DCU live-action film, Superman, which was released in theaters in July.
And while Peacemaker Season 2 is tied to the events of Superman and even brings in some characters from the superhero feature, Gunn said the stories of the new DCU are being told with different creative sensibilities that vary in tone — and the adult audience vibe of Peacemaker is a reflection of just how different each story will be.
“I think it’s important for us in the DCU that we’re telling incredibly different stories for different groups of people,” Gunn explained. “It should be made very clear to people that although [Peacemaker Season 2] is a continuation of Superman, this is not for children. This is for adults and I think it’s important that the DCU tells stories for adults.”
And while Peacemaker Season 2 takes a hardcore turn as it begins to set up the rest of the new DCU, Gunn assures audiences that there will be something for everybody going forward.
“We have the Krypto shorts coming out that are for kids and we have Supergirl [in 2026], which is a family audience in the same way Superman was,” Gunn said. “We also have Clayface being made [for 20260, which is an R-rated horror movie, so there are all different types of stories in the same universe. That variety is what makes it really fun to me.”
Peacemaker Season 2, Episode 1 is new on streaming on HBO Max and on cable on HBO.
