In Peacemaker's first season, mercenary Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) hired contract killer Christopher Smith (John Cena) to his black ops squad as part of Project Butterfly. Tasked with assassinating high-profile human targets hosting the bug-like aliens called "butterflies," Team Peacemaker -- Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), and John Economos (Steve Agee) -- learned that one such host was Murn, who was inhabited by the benevolent butterfly Ik Nobe Llok.
But while attempting to stop queen butterfly Eek Stack Ik Ik's attempted invasion of Earth, Ik Nobe Llok was crushed to death by Detective Sophie Song (Annie Chang) after she was leeched by Eek Stack Ik Ik.
"I think Clemson Murn is canon," series creator and showrunner James Gunn, who wrote the eight-episode first season, said on Peacemaker: The Official Podcast. Besides Gunn's confirmation that Murn's fate in Peacemaker season 1 is canon with the new DC Universe -- which is incorporated with an ongoing continuity that consists of Creature Commandos and Superman -- he explained how Iwuji could potentially reappear in another role.
"Maybe his face might not be canon if we want to cast Chuk as something else in the DCU," the DC Studios co-chief said of his Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 star. "But also, Chuk could end up being some other character, maybe [one] that isn't so humanoid."
Gunn took a similar approach with regular collaborator Michael Rooker, who played the killed-off Savant in 2021's The Suicide Squad and voiced a Superman Robot in Superman before being cast as Red St. Wild -- a hunter gunning for Peacemaker's pet eagle, Eagly -- in Peacemaker season 2.
Series regulars Cena, Brooks, Holland, Agee, and Freddie Stroma (Vigilante) and Robert Patrick (Auggie Smith) return for the new season, which has added new cast members Tim Meadows as A.R.G.U.S. Agent Langston Fleury, Sol Rodríguez as Checkmate's Sasha Bordeaux, and Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., reprising his role from Creature Commandos and Superman. Season 2 of Peacemaker premieres August 21 on HBO Max.