- Peacemaker season 2 confirms another DCEU movie is canon in the DCU
- The film in question is 2016’s Suicide Squad
- A single line of dialog in the series’ latest episode reveals why
Peacemaker season 2 just confirmed another movie from the now-defunct DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is officially canon in the DC Universe (DCU).
This season’s third chapter, titled ‘Another Rick Up My Sleeve’, reveals David Ayer’s much maligned Suicide Squad film, which was released in 2016, is part of DC Studios’ rebooted cinematic franchise. A single, seemingly throwaway line right at the start of season 2 episode 3 is all the confirmation we need, too.
Full spoilers immediately follow for ‘Another Rick Up My Sleeve’ and Suicide Squad.
The HBO Max show’s latest entry opens with a flashback concerning Emilia Harcourt and the return of a major character from 2021’s The Suicide Squad movie. This film shares some similarities with Suicide Squad, including Margot Robbie’s live-action portrayal of Harley Quinn, but the movies were believed to sit independent of each other until Peacemaker‘s second season. For more on the messy nature of the DC film timeline, read our DC movies in order guide.
But I’m getting off-track. Season 2 episode 3 reveals that, prior to the events of The Suicide Squad, Harcourt was having no strings attached sex with Rick Flag Jr – and it’s this flashback scene that cements Suicide Squad‘s place in DCU canon.
Midway through the pair’s conversation, a woman named June is mentioned. Harcourt says she isn’t happy about lying to June over her and Flag Jr’s secret situationship, before Flag Jr jokes that June would tear a hole through the middle of the Earth if she became aware of their romantic dalliance.
DC comic book devotees don’t need more details on the significance of who June is. For anyone who isn’t a DC diehard, though, it’s a reference to June Moone, aka the supervillain more commonly known as Enchantress. To sum up her comic book origin story, Moone, a freelance artist who attends a costume party at an old castle in her April 1966 literary debut, becomes possessed by a powerful entity after stumbling on a secret chamber. Long story short: she’s one of the most powerful black magic practitioners who operates in DC Comics.
Anyway, the reason why this is important is because of what we learn in Suicide Squad. Per the DCEU movie’s first act, we discover Flag Jr and Moone are in a relationship. That’s in spite Moone already being Enchantress, too, who – spoiler – ends up being that movie’s Big Bad.
Thankfully for Moone, she’s eventually freed from Enchantress’ strangehold when Flag Jr crushes Enchantress’ magical heart (i.e. the source of her powers) with a little help from Quinn. Flag Jr and Moone, then, seemingly get their happy ever after moment. Well, until Flag Jr and Harcourt start sleeping together behind her back, anyway.
Nonetheless, the fact that the duo discuss Moone in the DCU Chapter One TV show’s latest entry effectively confirms events depicted in Suicide Squad are canon in the DCU.
DC Studios co-chief James Gunn, who’s also the head writer and primary director of Peacemaker, doubled-down on this on the season 2 episode 3 entry of the Official Peacemaker Podcast, too, with Gunn reconfirming the Flag Jr we see in The Suicide Squad and this Peacemaker flashback is the same one from Suicide Squad. Therefore, events in Suicide Squad – or, at the very least, Flag Jr and Moone’s relationship – is now considered to be DCU canon.
As far as I’m concerned, that’s case thoroughly closed on a conversation about whether Suicide Squad, which is one of the worst-rated DC films of all-time (it holds a 28% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes), is part of the DCU’s narrative tapestry. Ayer’s original cut of the film, which some fans have clamored to see for years, may never see the light of day, but it’s nevertheless a nice homage on Gunn’s part to include it as part of his and Peter Safran’s new-look cinematic universe.
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