Full spoilers for 2021 follow The suicide squad movie.
Pacifier The first new cast member for Season 2 has been announced, and the reveal could make it even harder to follow the DC Cinematic Universe (DCU) reboot.
On Instagram last Friday (May 10), DCU co-director James Gunn confirmed that Frank Grillo, who readers might recognize from his small role in two of the three Marvel films starring Chris Evans Captain America movies, has joined the Pacifier cast.
Grillo will play Rick Flag Sr, the father of The suicide squadRick Flag (played by Joel Kinnaman), in the second season of the live-action show. Grillo will also voice the character in the DCU's upcoming R-rated animated series. Creature commands, which is expected to release on Max (in the US) sometime in 2024 and officially kick off Chapter One of the DCU. His appearance in PacifierThe second season, then, won't be Grillo's first appearance as the grizzled war veteran.
As Gunn alludes to, Flag Sr will be looking for Peacemaker, aka Christopher Smith (played by John Cena), in the next installment of the hit series. Peacemaker murdered his son in cold blood, on the orders of Amanda Waller, in the third act of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film. Expect a vengeful Flag Sr to spend much of season 2 hunting down his son's killer.
It will be interesting to see if Flag Sr comes after Waller in make peacer season 2 too. Waller assembled the Creature Commandos, a super-powered black ops team, under the leadership of Flag Sr decades earlier, so Waller and Flag Sr have a history together. However, if Flag Sr. finds out about Waller's involvement in the death of his son, that betrayal will further fuel his desire for revenge. Pacifier season 2 or Waller's eponymous TV show.
Grillo's upcoming appearance isn't the only Peacemaker news that has surfaced recently. According to Variety, Gunn will direct three of the eight episodes of season 2, including the premiere. Previously, we only knew that Gunn had written the second season of one of Max's best series, so this is the first apparent confirmation we've gotten about whether he'll be directing any of his entries.
Before he leads PacifierHowever, in the sequel season, Gunn will have to complete his directing duties on his Superman film, which could wrap filming in August ahead of its July 11, 2025 release date.
A messy situation
Grillo's appearance as Flag Sr in a live-action DCU project shouldn't come as a total surprise. When he revealed the full DCU Chapter One schedule in January 2023, Gunn confirmed that fans would see some actors reprise their roles in animated and live-action productions in the new DC film franchise.
However, Flag Sr's appearance in Pacifier poses a big problem for Gunn and his fellow DC Studios co-head Peter Safran. The pair have regularly emphasized that the DCU is a complete reboot of Warner Bros. Discovery's messy DCEU, but that effort continues to be hampered by projects that straddle the line between the two.
You will see, The suicide squad and Pacifier Season 1 were officially part of the DCEU. Now, Pacifier Season 2, which will pick up that duo's plot, is a narrative cog in the DCU machine, such as it is. Creature commandswhich, thanks to the involvement of Flag Sr, will now also be linked Pacifierthe second season and the aforementioned DCEU pair.
It's no wonder, then, that the public is baffled. Gunn and Safran may claim otherwise, but since plot points from the DCEU projects affect those from the DCU, there's no clear break between them, nor a complete reboot to speak of.
I have faith that Gunn and Safran know what they're doing, and I hope things (from a narrative and cinematic universe perspective) make more sense once we learn more about Creature commands and Pacifier season 2.
Right now, however, the lack of clarity means that viewer confusion will reign for a while yet. When you're trying to relaunch a major comic book franchise to rival the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it doesn't seem like a good idea.
