Peacemaker season 2 just ended on a massive cliffhanger that could have massive ramifications on the future of the DC Universe. We still don’t know if the series will get a third season, but showrunner James Gunn has confirmed that it will also serve as a direct lead-in in Man of Tomorrow (the Superman not-a-sequel follow-up that he’s also writing and directing). With that in mind, one particular detail from the Peacemaker season 2 finale could be the key to understanding Man of Tomorrow and its mysterious villain.
Intrigued? Let’s dive in.
Full spoilers below for the end of Peacemaker season 2.
Peacemaker season 2 ending explained
The finale of Peacemaker season 2 begins with ARGUS, led by Rick Flag (Frank Grillo), exploring the multiversal doorway that Chris Smith/Peacemaker (John Cena) handed over at the end of the previous episode. It’s unclear what they’re looking for, until they find it: a habitable planet where Flag can banish all of Earth’s metahumans. He names this planet Salvation, with plans to use it as a giant, inescapable jail.
At the very end of the episode, ARGUS kidnaps Chris and shoves him through the doorway into Salvation. Rick reveals that Peacemaker will be his test subject to make sure Salvation is actually habitable (he’s not a total monster, apparently) and the doorway disappears behind him, trapping Chris all alone on an alien planet in another dimension. Then, we hear a cacophony of roars that kind of sound like a bunch of offscreen dinosaurs about to devour Chris. Roll credits.
So what does it mean? To understand, it’s worth looking into DC comics history, specifically, the story of Salvation Run.
Salvation Run and Peacemaker
Published in 2007-2008 during DC’s Final Crisis crossover event, Salvation Run was a seven-issue limited series inspired by an idea from George R.R. Martin. It was written by Bill Willingham and Lilah Sturges, with art by Sean Chen, Walden Wong, Joe Bennett, and Belardino Brabo.
The basic premise of the comic was that the Suicide Squad (led by Amanda Waller) captured a bunch of supervillains and banished them to a distant planet called Salvation. The list of imprisoned villains included Lex Luthor, the Joker, Killer Croc, Bane, Deadshot, Gorilla Grodd, Hugo Strange, Clayface, Mister Freeze, Poison Ivy, Hyena, and dozens more. Waller also threw in some morally ambiguous characters, like Catwoman, for good measure.
The idea was to let the villains fight it out and die, but there was a twist. Turns out, Salvation was actually a “training planet” for the New Gods of Apokolips, aka, the hellish planet ruled by Darkseid. Even worse, Salvation was under the authority of one of Darkseid’s most disturbing followers: DeSaad.
DeSaad and the Man of Tomorrow
In the comics, DeSaad serves a very specific role: he’s Darkseid torture guy. DeSaad is also a genius who loves inventing new ways to torture his victims, and is pretty much immortal. In some iterations, he’s super strong, too, and has other powers like telepathy and the ability to control others’ emotions. In other words, he’s terrifying.
If James Gunn is riffing on the Salvation Run plotline (and this seems very likely based on the prison planet’s name in Peacemaker), then it seems logical that he could be setting up DeSaad as the DCU’s next big bad. This would certainly be a scary enough threat to get Superman and Lex Luthor working together on the same team against a greater threat — especially if Lex feels bad for coming up with the idea of a multiversal prison in the first place.
To be clear, we’re taking some big speculative leaps here, but based on the ending of Peacemaker season 2, DeSaad just jumped way up in the rankings for Man of Tomorrow‘s main villain. And as an added bonus, he could act as an appetizer for Darkseid himself once Gunn gets around to making his own Justice League movie.
Thankfully, we won’t have to wait too much longer to find out for sure. Man of Tomorrow is expected to start filming in April of 2026.
