Season 2 of Peacemaker, the first original TV series under the new DCU banner, is nearly here. It’s been three-and-a-half years of waiting, and the new episode run kicks off on Thursday on HBO Max. I hope you’re excited, because I sure am.
The first season gave John Cena’s helmet-wearing villain (previously seen in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad) the spotlight and, in turn, we watched Peacemaker — also known as Chris Smith — as he struggled with the bad decisions and abusive demons of his past. Oh, and he also fought an invasion of butterfly aliens. You know, as you do.
The series humanized its titular bad-guy-turned-sorta-good-guy by giving him a ragtag crew to bond with. This team from Amanda Waller’s government agency Argus included Emilia Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), Adrian Chase (Freddie Stroma) and Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks).
And let’s not forget Steve Agee, who plays John Economos. Agee first brought Economos to life in 2021’s The Suicide Squad and has since returned to the character in Creature Commandos and Peacemaker.
If the name John Economos doesn’t ring a bell, you may know him better as “Dye Beard,” the unfortunate nickname that stuck with him throughout season 1. According to the actor, that moniker is gone in season 2. Now, I’m not going to tell you what it’s replaced with, but Agee revealed to me that Economos “isn’t crazy about it.”
Ahead of the premiere of season 2, I spoke to him over Zoom to dig into Economos’s new struggles, Peacemaker’s connection to Superman and a pesky new opening credits dance number.
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Steve Agee and Tim Meadows star in season 2 of Peacemaker on HBO Max.
Your character has to work alongside some interesting new characters this season. Start with Langston Fleury, since he’s the one who gives you that nickname. What does his character represent for John’s story arc this season?
He’s a babysitter, really. I’m really the only one left working at Argus in season 2. They know that I’m still friends with Peacemaker, and so, I feel like a lot of people there don’t trust Economos. So I’m kind of saddled with a babysitter. An insane babysitter.
Rick Flag Sr. has a major presence in season 2. He’s your boss at Argus, now. How is that impacting John?
It’s a paycheck, man. I can’t go out and be a mercenary. I’m too weak, you know? I think I’m comfortable with computers. I’m still not sure Economos is comfortable in the surveillance aspect, which is largely what I’m doing a lot of in this season, especially when I’m half having to surveil a friend, but it also allows me the ability to kind of watch over this friend and make sure he’s OK. And you know, Flag: this whole season is driven by the fact that Peacemaker killed his kid. Yeah, that’s the whole thing driving this season. Had that not happened? I don’t think we have a show, especially a season 2.
Frank Grillo is Rick Flag, Sr. in season 2 of Peacemaker on HBO Max.
But is this just a paycheck? I think you’ve talked about this in previous interviews, that John Economos is like a ball of anxiety. Is there any fear in John of not having a clear sense of purpose?
There’s a lot of that there. Also, in season 1, we were all kind of at odds with each other, until the end, where we all came together and became the 11th Street Kids and formed these bonds. That fight at the end was our Vietnam, you know? This is like our Band of Brothers. These are now my only friends. And so Economos has loyalty to these people, which I think is also another reason for him to stay and do what he’s doing.
Season 1 revealed the sad reason why Economos dyes his beard. Given the storyline’s emotional grounding, can we expect another moment like that this season?
Well, I feel like in season 1, we needed a backstory for Economos. We didn’t know a lot about him, and that monologue at the end about why I dye my beard is heartbreaking. We also needed to kind of get into Peacemaker’s backstory and understand why he is such a piece of shit. James really does that well. He did it in Creature Commandos with the Weasel. You watch The Suicide Squad movie, and you’re like, “This guy’s a fucking monster. He killed a bunch of kids.” And then you watch the animated series and you’re like, Oh my god, this is so goddamn tragic. So we know more about Peacemaker going into season 2. We know more about Economos a little bit, or at least his weird brain. And I think there are other characters that we need to kind of explore deeper this season, you know, like Harcourt and still Cena, too.
John Cena and Danielle Brooks return for season 2 of Peacemaker on HBO Max.
Since you now have previous experience with the dance choreography for the season 1 dance number, how was it doing this new opening credit sequence? Easier? More stressful? Terrifying?
It was less terrifying. I was more, I don’t want to say bummed out, but it’s just that I don’t like dancing. It’s very difficult for me. And I knew this was a much bigger number because we had more cast members. It was going to be a two-day shoot instead of one day. So I honestly wasn’t looking forward to shooting the dance number, because I knew it was going to be very difficult for me, as well as probably a quarter of the other cast members. But, on the other hand, it’s one of the highlights of the show. I knew once we finished, it was going to be this amazing thing under my belt to brag about and show people.
So, what’s the big deal about Peacemaker’s pocket dimension? Why is this such a big issue for Argus?
I mean, it’s because it’s a doorway to several worlds that we don’t know. It’s in Superman; it’s becoming clear that there are people who have an issue with meta-humans and stuff like that. This is literally a doorway to access more meta-humans, possibly. So they just really don’t want to explore this, and they want to keep it kind of shut down.
