Peacemaker Reveals A Big, Cringey Twist That Will Help Fuel More Real-World Violence

When I reviewed the first episode of Peacemaker’s second season, I voiced concerns that the setup was based around exploring a multiverse, one of the most worn-out, overused tropes in the world of superheroes. That was disappointing since if writer and director James Gunn is usually anything, it’s unique.

Now, in its sixth episode, Peacemaker season two has revealed its big twist in an episode called “Ignorance Is Chris.” That twist is literally the only thing in the world more hackey and worn out than multiverses: Nazis.

Yes, Peacemaker season 2 isn’t just taking place in a multiverse; it’s taking place in a Nazi multiverse. That’s like having a cop just days away from retirement become the chosen one. Or having the final girl survive in your horror movie, only to realize she’s been a ghost the whole time. Only this is much, much worse than either of those.

If there’s anything more cringe in 2025 than a Nazi multiverse, I can’t think of it.

There’s actually an even bigger problem for the show than resorting to a hackneyed Nazi plot. It’s also doing a weak job of making Nazi rule seem like a bad thing.

Sure, we’ve found out that this Nazi world hates black people. And that’s terrible. But… literally everything else in the Nazi multiverse Peacemaker discovers is seemingly perfect.

The streets are park-like and clean. Heroes easily solve any and all crimes. Everyone is super nice to each other. Kids ride bikes, and people live happy, healthy, fulfilling lives. That’s why Peacemaker goes there in the first place, because it’s obviously a much nicer universe to live in.

So, is James Gunn trying to say that all our problems could be solved if we went full white power and kicked all the people of color out of our country? I assume this result is an accident. Maybe there’s more to it that we’ll uncover, but so far it’s not exactly an indictment of what the world would look like if it were run by Nazis.

Peacemaker Already Being Used To Dehumanize Conservatives

This Peacemaker Nazi-verse plot is already ruining the real world. Only a couple of hours after the episode’s debut, people are using it to amp up dehumanizing rhetoric and push lunatics towards more real-life political violence.

If you frame all your political opponents as Nazis, it becomes justifiable to kill them. That framing has become so pervasive that in the last two weeks it resulted in the murder of political commentator Charlie Kirk and an attack on an ICE facility in Texas, which killed one and wounded two others. Now here’s Peacemaker, to add even more fuel to the America is run by Nazis rhetoric and probably get more people killed.

I don’t know if that’s what Gunn intended, but he should have been responsible enough and aware enough to realize that framing America as a Nazi state, even in an alternate universe, would just be used by people screaming Nazi at conservatives as a way to dehumanize them and justify more killing. And that’s exactly what’s happening.

Lex Luthor Appears In A Cameo

Luckily, despite basing the entire season on not one, but two boring, hackey, completely worn out premises, James Gunn is so good at writing these characters that the show has remained interesting. He’s great at dropping characters into situations, even incredibly cliche ones, and eliciting interesting reactions.

It helps that John Cena is the show’s lead. He’s one of the most interesting actors in Hollywood, underrated due to his wrestling background and cartoonishly sized muscles. He carries the show effortlessly, and any time he’s on screen, Peacemaker soars.

Nicholas Hoult also appeared in this episode to reprise the role of Lex Luthor. When last we saw him, it was in the Superman movie this summer, being defeated by the Man of Steel. In the episode, Luthor is visited in prison and pumped for information on the multiverse doorway owned by Peacemaker.

Hoult’s appearance was little more than a cameo and not important, because the real point of “Ignorance Is Chris” was to reveal the season’s big, cringey Nazi twist. The cringey twist that will now get real people killed. It’s hard to care about a Lex Luthor cameo in that context. Congratulations DC. Now, you’ve attached your Nazi cringe to Superman, too.