James Gunn isn’t shying away from controversy when it comes to his DCU series Peacemaker.
The filmmaker addressed reactions to Season 2, Episode 6, which revealed the shocking Nazi twist tied to Earth X, an alternate universe where Nazi Germany won World War II.
The storyline sparked plenty of conversation online, and Gunn admits he’s heard from critics, including what he described as “a few racists.”
“I have a few racists that have called me polarizing, but I’m okay with being polarizing and letting racists fall to the wayside,” Gunn told GQ.
“People have loved this episode the most, so it’s exciting. … Listen, we’re dealing with a very sensitive subject. We’re dealing with racism and, at the same time, there’s humour in this episode.
And so, you’re dealing with something very delicate and yet we’re not being delicate about it — but I don’t think we’re not being delicate in a non-thoughtful way. We’re being thoughtful about it.”
The episode marks one of the boldest creative swings of the series, with Gunn admitting the storyline faced internal pushback before release.
“We got a lot of pushback from various sources within the structure, on this episode in particular, and we’re like, ‘Let’s not be bashful about this. Let’s just do the story that we want to do and I don’t want to have to pull punches with it,’” he said.
“With Peacemaker, we really let it go. We take chances. We go to places where I think other people are afraid to go.”
Speaking to Variety, Gunn revealed he even held private test screenings to see if viewers would pick up on the clues sprinkled throughout the season that hinted at Earth X’s Nazi-controlled reality.
One of the most significant hints was the fact that the alternate universe was populated only with white people.
“No one noticed at all,” Gunn explained.
“That was people of colour, too, by the way. It wasn’t just, you know, the whites.”
Still, some viewers online eventually spotted the difference in background actors and flagged it ahead of the official reveal.
“It’s really hard when you’re online and one person out of the millions of people that are watching the show says, ‘Wait a second, here’s a screenshot of what it’s like in the alternate world, and here’s a screenshot of the background actors in the DCU,’ and you see the difference between them immediately,” Gunn added.
Despite the controversy, Gunn believes the creative risks paid off, pointing out that the Nazi-centered episode has been one of the season’s most well-received so far.
Peacemaker season 2, set after Gunn’s Superman, continues to roll out weekly, with new episodes streaming Thursdays on HBO Max.
