ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - How the PEACEMAKER FINALE Sets Up Darkseid and the Future of the DCU

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

ScreenCrush The Podcast tackles all the movie and TV hot topics, offering reviews and analysis of Marvel, Star Wars, and everything you care about right now. Hosted by Ryan Arey, and featuring a panel of industry professionals.

The Peacemaker's Season 2 finale, or as James Gum would call it, a possible series finale, just opened the door literally to the next chapter of the DCU. And my friends, we are officially on the path to Darkside. Hey, welcome back to Screen Crush. I'm Colton Ogburn, and Peacemaker is trapped on Salvation, but he is not alone. So we're going to explain what salvation is, how it's connected to the DC supervillain, Darkside, how all of this is setting up not only Man of Tomorrow, Lanterns, and Creature Commando Season 2, but also a secret sequel to a movie from the old DCEU that could be the key

to peacemakers return home. And hey, by the way, be sure to check out Screencrush on all major podcasting platforms and give our merch store a visit. We have lots of fun peacemaker-inspired designs, such as a biker-eagley with text, it reads, Do You Really Want to Taste It? This thoughtful bird blindness PSA, give a hoot about bird. blindness and this great peace cycle, a play on the iconic poster for Akira. Shopping our merch store is the best way to support the channel so we can keep making videos

just like this one and we thank you so much for that support. So this whole season we've been exploring the QUC, the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, and with Flagg Sr., now heading up Argus and having gained access to the QUC, he is now sending his minions to explore it. We're gonna find what we need in there. I really believe it. And Lex Luthor, who cameoed earlier in the series, and has an ever-lurking presence in this episode as well.

Further connecting the portals and alternate dimensions that he was experimenting with in Superman to the QUC in Peacemaker, which is an alien tech far superior to Luther's tech. This tech is so far beyond anything we know terrestrial. So the team goes to many wild realities when being a door to a black hole, a black hole that looks exactly like the black hole that we saw in Superman and that the Superman clone Ultraman was sucked into. Now Lex says in a note to Flag that this reality looks promising. So could this mean that Lex is hoping to find his lost clone out there in the

multiverse and use him to help round up metahumans? Or could this black hole be one of the options that Flagg was considering for metahuman banishment that they can never escape from? That is before finding salvation. Now, salvation in the comics is a place where super villains were exiled to for the same reason that Flagg states in the finale. Arkham and Bel-Rive. They're not capable of holding individuals who have extraordinary abilities.

They're not. Every single month someone escapes. But the most important part of the comic run hides just beneath the surface, literally. Salvation is really more so a simulation of Earth that was used to train Darkside's army of parodemots. Now, Darkside is essentially the Thanos of DC Comics, but he actually came first. So whenever you hear people a few years from now saying, oh, DC is copying Marvel. Actually, DC did it first. Anyway, Darkside is the tyrannical ruler of the planet Apocalypse, and his ultimate goal is to obtain the anti-life equation,

a cosmic formula that would allow him to erase all of free will in the universe and bend every living thing to his control. And you'll remember that as being a key part of the Snyder Justice League movie. Now, Darkside believes that life itself is chaotic and meaningless and without order. So to enforce that vision, he sends his army of pear demons, which are these genetically engineered servant soldiers that were bred from the tortured souls of Apocalypse, Apocalypse being where Darkside is from. So these parodemons, they invade various worlds, and they convert the Concord into fellow

parodemons. Darkside's overall mission is to expand his empire and reshape reality in his image. In short, he's a bad dude. Now, Salvation was not the only Darkside reference in this episode or even in this season. We hear mention of an Earth 28, which is the world of mechs. is a world where the Justice League has to use these robot suits to fight off these big beast after their Earth was destroyed by an invasion from Apocalypse. We also see this zombie Earth, which is likely the deceased universe, where the zombie

virus was started because of Darkside messing up the anti-life equation. So Flagg and Argus messing with this portal tech could be the DCU's prime Earth literally opening the door for an invasion from Darkside. Now, D'Sod, a servant of Darkside, who we've actually seen and Snyder's Cut of Justice League, he is the one in the comics who orchestrates what's going down on salvation and who is using it as this training ground for parademons. And when Earth starts sending its super villains to that planet as well, decide quietly observes the villains from afar until he deems it is time to strike and

he sends his army to take out the least powerful of the prisoners so that Darkside can then train and recruit the strongest amongst them to be part of his army. And if they do this in the DCU, we could see all the super powerful meta humans that were sent to salvation be more willing to join Darkside because they are pissed at Earth for banishing them in the first place, banishing them for their power. And it is Darkside who is standing there appreciating them for their power and promising to treat them like the gods they are. In the comics, the first batch of villains that were sent to salvation were killed pretty quickly.

But then we see characters like Lex Luther and Joker sent there and they form their own factions. Now, James Gunn has said that he isn't planning to adapt that portion of the story exactly, and he's even made clear that while Argus may be saying they're only sending super villains to salvation, that's really just anyone that they deem a threat. So we could see even a hero, like Hot Girl, be sent there for killing the president of Bravia and Superman. But we think the divide that we'll see in the DCU version of Salvation will be those that side with Desod or Darkside and those who don't. Peacemaker, of course, being who certainly wouldn't side with Darkside because he's done being told to what he should do

and he is now listening to himself. Plus, Peacemaker's not a metahuman, so Darkside probably has no interest in recruiting him. What a burn. Now, on Peacemaker's team, I think we would likely see a hero like Hot Girl who Peacemaker has met before in this season. It's really nice to meet you. That wasn't much of an introduction. While on the other more villainous side, we could see characters like Clayface, Matalo, Vangel Savage, Solomon Grundy, Manbat, and I could go on. Now, in the comics, it was a WALER and Flagg who deployed the suicide squad to round up and ship out supervillains to salvation. James Gunn, of course, has directed a Suicide Squad movie that is damn near 100% canon to the new DCU, and we know that Viola Davis's Amanda Waller will be returning for the DCU.

So we could see Waller put together a team of Harley Quinn, King Shark, Dr. Phosphorus from Creature Commandos, hell, essentially the entire team of Creature Commandos, and have them come in in place, of the suicide squad really. And we could see this team of former supervillains being commanded by Waller, and their mission is to round up supervillains who have escaped from prison and send them to salvation. And that could very well be the plot of the currently in production Creature Commando season two. And that could very well be the next time we will see the 11th Street Kids, now checkmate, since

James Gunn has stated that he doesn't know if there will be another season of peacemaker, but we will certainly be seeing all the characters together again and soon. Now, before you say, James Gunn would never tie a show, especially an adult animated show, that closely into the story and make it required viewing to watch the DCU movies. And to that, I say, yeah, that's true. He wouldn't. Gunn will explain in the movies themselves everything you need to know to watch and enjoy the film. Gunn has said as much in a recent interview that you don't have to have seen Peacemaker

to follow the Salvation storyline. It will simply be a bonus if you have. Now, come the end of Creature Commando season two, after they've rounded up all these big powerful metahumans that Flagg and Luther and Waller have wanted to get rid of and off the planet, we could see the commandos then be betrayed and sent to salvation themselves. We could see Flagg betray his old friends and close the door back home while the commandos are still on the other side in Salvation transporting prisoners. Flagg will view the commandos as the last of the dangerous metahumans and prior supervillains

that he needs removed to cleanse the planet. And we could see Lex Luther be on board with this as well, that is, until Flag moves to have Lex sent there as well, because Flagg no longer needs him. And as James Gunn has suggested, Lex Luthor is so smart that he too could be considered a metahuman. And Flagg will say that Luther himself is a danger to the planet after what happened in Superman with that giant rift. And this is where I think we'll see the rift between Waller and Flag begin to emerge. After all, in the comics, it was Waller who pushed back against the idea of sending these metahumans and villains to Salvation. Now, don't get me wrong, Waller is a mean motherfucker, but you could still argue that she is fair

and by the book. If the commandos do their task and do it well, Waller isn't the type to turn around and stab them in the back. And this is where we could see the team up of Amanda Waller and Lex Luthor who now joined forces with Checkmate and Superman in Man of Tomorrow. Perhaps having to fight against either the lost and now found Ultraman who was under the control of flag after finding him in that black hole, or maybe even Brainiac as a as this photo of the script would suggest.

Perhaps this version of Brainiac will be an advanced artificial intelligence that Luther has developed while in prison for Flagstream of having a police state that keeps the world safe without needing superheroes. But now that artificial intelligence has gone rogue and meta-humans like Superman and even Lex Luthor are the only one's that can stop it. And in Man of Tomorrow, I think Waller and Checkmate would serve in like a shield capacity, like in the MCU. This would introduce the 11th Street Kids to the wider audience. Granted, they're going to have to clean up their language just a smidge for that PG-13 rating. And this could really cement the 11th Street Kids as the recurring glue of this universe. And that is something that was kind of loosely being played with in Black Adam and Shazam.

And I think that will be the case that these will be reoccurring characters throughout the entirety of the DCU because this is a cast that James Gunn adores. I mean, Hartcourt's wife, Economos is one of Gunn's closest friends, And Gunn has said so many times how special they all are to him and how much he enjoys working with them and that Peacemaker Season 2 is his favorite thing and favorite experience he's ever had making a project. So while we may not be getting a Peacemaker Season 3 anytime soon, I think Gunn is totally going to be using Checkmate as an opportunity to have these characters show up in most, if not all, of the DCU projects, as that thread that connects every single one. Now, as for when we'll see Peacemaker again, well, where did we meet Peacemaker the first time? James Guns the Suicide Squad. And I think it is high time we got a sequel to that movie that takes place on salvation.

Peacemaker, Harley Quinn, King Shark, G-I-Robot, Bloodsport, Dr. Phosphorus, all of them stranded on salvation, trying to survive and find a way back home. And no, you won't have to have seen Creature Commando season two. It'll be nice if you have, but the movie will open and explain, hey, this is a place where the big bad government is sending all of the metahumans because they deem them a threat. Simple. And in this quasi-sequel to The Suicide Squad, we could even get a fun little lime where we learned that in order to escape, they're going to have to go through some really dangerous meta-humans and monsters that are native to the planet. And someone can say, that's a suicide mission. And then Harley can say, hey, that's kind of what we do. You're welcome. You can mail me my tag James.

Essentially, I picture that movie as like an R-rated Jumanji. Now, we also need to discuss how lanterns ties into all of this, because Gunn himself has just said that, while it may be a lot of, not seem obvious at first that Lanterns is also very connected to the Salvation storyline. My good friend and coworker Lee Mazio even had the awesome theory that lanterns could be about these space cop detectives investigating the missing MetaHumans. Lanterns is said to be a true detective style show, so seeing Earth's lanterns investigate the rampant disappearance of MetaHumans could make for an awesome mystery-solving series. In fact, we know that Guy Gardner's Green Lantern is going to be in the show, so maybe He joins his fellow lanterns, Hal Jordan, and John Stewart to search for these missing

metahumans because his teammate slash pupil, Hot Girl, is one of the missing meta humans. And guys, here's something we need to remember. It took 10 years to get from Iron Man 1 in 2008 to Avengers Infinity War in 2018. And I hope the same is true for the DCU. I'm in for the long haul, personally, and I don't need to see Darkside anytime soon. I want that slow burn, eerie, haunting presence of Darkside lurking and becoming more and more clear as we near like a crisis-style event where we eventually get to see Superman, Supergirl, Peacemaker, the squad, the Justice Gang, Batman, Wonder Woman, the lanterns, all of them

going up against this big bad. And I am fine with waiting till like 2035 before we get it. But you know what I don't want to wait till 2035 for? I need to know what's happening on EarthX. And hopefully Creature Commando season two will explore that and let GI Robot have a crack at that universe. It's been oh so long since GI Robot has set Nazis back to hell. But hey, those are just my thoughts and theories for what we can expect next in the DCU. Let me know your thoughts and theories down in the comments below. And if you're new here, be sure to subscribe and hit the bell so you get notified every time we upload a new video. For Screen Crush, I'm Colton Ogren.