James Gunn has discussed the shocking twist from the latest episode of his hit superhero TV series Peacemaker and why he chose a track from a cult Swedish heavy metal band to soundtrack it.
Speaking on the official Peacemaker podcast, showrunner Gunn, who is also the co-head of DC Studios and directed this year’s Superman movie, breaks down some of the musical choices for the show’s newest ep, which includes a song by Stockholm-based five-piece Dynazty during its final scene.
Warning: spoilers for episode six of season two of Peacemaker to follow.
In the episode’s final moments, it’s revealed that the idyllic alternate universe where lead character Chris ‘Peacemaker’ Smith has been spending much of his time is, in fact, a world in which America is ruled by the Nazis. As Peacemaker realises that the American flag of this world features a swastika in place of the iconic 50 stars of the American states, the scene cuts to his friend Leota getting chased down a residential street by a mob of angry racists.
The needle drop for the chase scene is Dynazty’s 2020 song Presence Of Mind, taken from their seventh studio album The Dark Delight. On the podcast, Gunn reveals that even though the track was his original choice to close the episode, he initially faced some pushback from some of his Peacemaker colleagues.
“I’m a huge Dynazty fan,” the director explains. “They’re one of my favourite metal bands. “They’re actual real metal. A lot of the bands [on the show’s soundtrack] are, like, glam metal, and that’s not really metal, usually. But in terms of actual metal bands, they’re one of my favourites.
“That doesn’t mean that I thought the song was perfect…nobody liked the song when I put it in the cut! Including [Peacemaker co-executive producer] Lars [Winther] and [DC studios co-CEO] Peter Safran, who were trying to talk me into dropping the song. I was secretly texting [executive producer] Galen [Vaisman], ‘What’s their problem with this song?!’
“And so we actually went through and tried another twenty songs at the end – Alice Cooper’s Brutal Planet and a bunch of other stuff – and nothing worked, so I’m like, ‘I dunno, what do they know?!’ So I kept in Dynazty!”
The Peacemaker episode also features an earlier needle drop of Helloween power ballad Forever & One (Neverland), in a hilarious moment where it’s revealed that in the alternate universe, the German power metallers are as big as The Beatles.
“The song is very melodic,” Gunn notes of the track. “Their music is mostly not like that!” Gunn also makes a point of saying he didn’t realise Helloween were German when picking the song, suggesting that any relevance to the episode’s big twist is entirely coincidental.
“They’re a great, fantastic band and we love them as much as Nazi Earth II loves them,” he laughs. “I didn’t know they were German! I would have maybe thought twice about that.”
Watch the full podcast episode below. James Gunn has spoken at length about using metal, and in particular glam metal, to soundtrack much of Peacemaker – the show’s first season featured Wig Wam track Do Ya Wanna Taste It over its opening credits.
“It’s taking hair metal, basically, or sleaze metal, or glam metal, and giving it a spotlight,” Gunn told the Peacemaker podcast in 2022. “And it’s a mix between these old bands and new bands. There’s a lot of European sleaze metal bands today that are actually really good. They’re actually overall much better than the hair metal bands that I grew up with. Being able to give that music that’s so out of fashion in America a chance to shine a little is one of the fun things about this show.”
Peacemaker drops new episodes every Friday on HBO Max (US) and Sky/Now TV (UK).
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