Peacemaker Season 1 Recap: Everything to Know Before Season 2
Catch Up on John Cena’s Anti-Hero Journey Before the New Season Drops
WithPeacemaker Season 2premiering on HBO Max onAugust 21, 2025, there’s no better time to take a look back at how it all began. James Gunn’s first season took what seemed like a throwaway character from The Suicide Squad and turned him into one of DC’s most complex and unpredictable anti-heroes.
Packed with humor, violence, political satire, and heartbreaking moments, Season 1 laid the groundwork for what’s to come. Here’s your complete recap of Peacemaker Season 1.
Table of Contents
Who Are the Butterflies? Alien Invasion and Betrayal Revealed
Straight from the events of The Suicide Squad,Peacemaker (John Cena)is released from the hospital to be dragged into a new black-ops mission called Project Butterfly. Forced to choose between prison and joining a covert mission, he becomes part of a new team led by Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji), with Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), Economos (Steve Agee), and rookie Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), who is secretly Amanda Waller’s daughter.
The mission? Find and eliminate alien creatures known as Butterflies that infect human hosts. But things aren’t that simple. Chris is haunted after killingRick Flag, burdened by his toxic relationship with his father, Auggie (Robert Patrick), and often clashes with his unhinged new partner, Vigilante (Freddie Stroma).
Peacemaker’s Family Drama and Who is White Dragon
Chris’s troubled past is the hallmark of the season. Flashbacks show how his abusive father forced him into violence, even accusing him of his brother’s death. Auggie returns as the white-supremacist White Dragon, eventually wearing his armor to hunt down his own son.
Meanwhile, Chris secretly traps a Butterfly in a jar after killing Senator Goff, causing division within the team. Meanwhile, Adebayo plants a fake diary to frame him. Later, the truth comes out when the group learns that Murn himself is a Butterfly, but a Butterfly that is turning against his own kind.
The tension escalates to new heights when the aliens hijack an entire police force. Chris realizes the only way to stop them is by destroying their massive food source: the grotesque alien creature known as the Cow.
The Season 1 Finale: Peacemaker vs The Cow
The finale delivers pure chaos as the team launches an assault on the Butterflies’ headquarters. Harcourt, Vigilante, and Economos are all badly wounded, leaving only Chris and Adebayo to finish the mission.
Goff’s Butterfly begs Chris to join them, saying their incursion was to save humanity from itself. Peacemaker finally takes matters into his own hands, rejecting their offer and destroying the Cow with Adebayo’s help.
The fallout changes everything. Adebayo exposes her mother, Amanda Waller, and Task Force X on the public stage. Harcourt takes on the leadership role, and Chris finally forms genuine bonds with his team. Yet even as he shares a quiet moment with Eagly and the surviving Butterfly Goff, he remains haunted by visions of his father.
Why Peacemaker Season 1 Matters Going into Season 2
Peacemaker Season 1 wasn’t just a wild, gritty superhero story; it was the journey of a man scarred by trauma, seeking redemption. By the final episode, Chris is no longer a joke character but a broken anti-hero who yearns to be something else.
With Season 2 directly following the fallout of Adebayo’s revelations and Chris still haunted by Auggie, revisiting Season 1 isn’t just an option; it’s a must.
Umair Nakade
Umair has loved anime since it was still pretty niche, growing up watching classics like Pokémon, Dragon Ball, Zatch Bell, and Beyblade in the early 2010s. Death Note really got him hooked, and since then, he’s caught up with everything from the Big Three to the latest Shonen Jump hits, with Haikyuu!!! as his favorite. But he’s not just about anime, Umair’s a huge cinephile, especially superhero flicks from Marvel and DC, and never misses opening day at theaters. When he’s not watching or writing, you will find him playing Wuthering Waves, AAA titles, or listening to Harry Styles on repeat. At Techwiser, Umair is dedicated to covering anime and pop culture content.
