While recent media history has left many audiences understandably wary that any production that deals with such heavy topics will eventually devolve into a cathartic outlet for its creator's sociopolitical frustrations, Peacemaker showrunner James Gunn promises he is taking a more "complicated" approach to the titular anti-hero's trip to the Nazi-occupied Earth-X.
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The DC Studios Co-CEO provided this insight into Peacemaker's production during a recent interview given to GQ's Alex Pappademas following the parallel world's official identification in Episode 6, Ignorance is Chris.
Asked at the top of their time together if he took any "delight" in the fact that both Superman and Peacemaker, wildly different in tone and creative intent as they are, could both be accepted by audiences as the DCU's 'flagship' productions, Gunn admitted that more so than this potential for co-existence, he was a particular fan of how the HBO Max series allowed him to take more 'out there' creative swings:
"The show [emphasis his] delights me. I really do whatever I want with Peacemaker -- and I mean, in one respect, I do whatever I want with anything, because I am able to make my own choices and I'm my own boss. But with Peacemaker, we really let it go.
"We take chances. We go to places where I think other people are afraid to go. 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.'
"And it's interesting because there hasn't been that sort of... I have a few racists that have called me polarizing, but I'm okay with being polarizing and letting racists fall to the wayside. People have loved this episode the most, so it's exciting."
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Met by the subsequent admission from Pappademas that he had missed subtle hints regarding the Season 2 twist, in particular how public-set scenes on the parallel world featured absolutely zero non-white characters, because he had instead been zeroed in on Peacemaker's own internal turmoil regarding his killing and identity-stealing of his Earth-X counterpart, Gunn affirmed that such a conflicted viewer sentiment was exactly what he was going for:
"Yeah, I mean I think it's complicated. And I think people think now it's cut and dried and [Chris's father] Augie's a Nazi and this and that, and I mean you're going to get the next episode -- it's not cut and dried. People are complex, people are people, and I probably shouldn't have even said that sentence, but you're going to get to the next episode and it's not so cut and dried.
Turning his attentions to Earth-X's broader thematic implications, Gunn then opined, "I don't know. I mean, what they want is correct, but is the way they're going about it correct? Life is complicated."
"And also when you have family and children and pets, a life that you have to live, you can't live in this constant state of agitation that so many people today seem to live in, because they're doom-scrolling about things that maybe we can change, maybe we can't, I don't know. And I think that's one of our complicated relationships to the world in a connected planet that's different from the people that came before us.
"When I was growing up, once every couple years, Time Magazine would have a cover about starving kids in Cambodia. And as a child, I would go, "Well, how am I living in this house? What am I doing?" I feel these waves of guilt. Then it passes because I'm not being barraged with it every second. And that doesn't mean I shouldn't be -- it just means life is complicated and I think that the story is complicated."
Drawing his thoughts to a close, Gunn ultimately assured Pappademas, "This isn't the simple world where it's just giving us a punching bag with racists."
"That's part of it. That's fun. But it's more complicated than that when we get to the next episode. It's not so simple."