In its decade-long run, the DC Extended Universe only made a single venture into the realm of television with The Suicide Squad spin-off series, Peacemaker. Thankfully, while the DCEU has reached its end, fans of Peacemaker can rest easily knowing that Season 2 is still very much on the way and will be connected to the newly established DCU continuity. This new universe will feature the return of select characters, but fans can also look forward to several new and exciting cast members. Such recently announced casting includes David Corenswet as the man of steel himself in James Gunn’s upcoming Superman film, and more recently, Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., who is set to make his first appearance this year in the animated series, Creature Commandos. The casting of the latter actor has created some intriguing possibilities, especially considering that it’s been confirmed that Grillo will be reprising the role in Peacemaker Season 2.
Given the events that went down between Colonel Rick Flag and Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad, it’s more than likely that Flag Sr.’s next appearance after Creature Commandos will be in a much more vengeful, antagonistic role. Even though Peacemaker found his way through a redemptive story arc in the first season, it appears that he’ll still have some potentially dangerous consequences to face for his past actions in the second. Several story details for Season 2 are still being kept under considerably tight wraps. If the casting of Grillo serves as any indication, however, it appears that one of Peacemaker’s most devastating acts and one of the DCEU’s most unexpected and devastating character deaths is about to see a major payoff.
What Happened to Colonel Rick Flag in the DCEU?
Despite the character’s prominence in the film, David Ayer’s Suicide Squad in 2016 didn’t exactly give Joel Kinnaman much to work with in the role of Colonel Rick Flag. James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad in 2023, on the other hand, made him a much more fully realized character with a legitimate personality. As such, audiences came to really enjoy Kinnaman’s portrayal and became much more attached to Flag on his second outing. This made the moment of his death at the hands of Peacemaker all the more tragic when he intended to leak the terrifyingly corrupt secrets of Project Starfish to the press. When the first season of Peacemaker premiered the following year, however, it seemed that whatever anger or hatred that certain viewers may have been harboring towards the title character for Flag’s murder began to fade away more and more as his personal complexities were further explored.
The show painted Peacemaker in a much more complicated and even sympathetic light. The guilt he felt over Flag’s murder and the emotional impact of Flag’s mocking final words created some massive emotional hurdles that he had to overcome. However, he did undergo some serious character development through them and eventually wound up finding a sense of redemption through his newfound loyalty to his team members on Project Butterfly. While the DCU reset is underway, fortunately, it appears that all that development will not have been for nothing.
Certain Previous DCEU Elements Will Carry Over To the New DCU
Despite the reset that’s already in motion for the DC Universe, fans of previous DCEU installments can look forward to the fact that certain story elements and characters won’t be going to waste. Not only will a majority of the cast featured in Peacemaker‘s first season be returning for various projects, but it has also been confirmed that Xolo Maridueña will be returning as Jaime Reyes/Blue Beetle after the character’s titular debut in DCEU’s second to last film. It’s currently unknown what kind of explanation the new universe will give in addressing how these elements made their way to the new timeline, but given the cosmic events that occurred in 2023’s The Flash, it could be easily assumed that perhaps it’s all due to the effects of Barry Allen’s tampering with time travel and multiverse entanglement. So far, James Gunn has been rather cryptic about what parts of Peacemaker and The Suicide Squad will remain canonical in the new narrative, which is understandable as he most likely wants the fans to be surprised by it all.
Given the recent news, however, it seems more than safe to assume that the death of Rick Flag in The Suicide Squad will indeed be one of those remaining elements. Although, rather than having one of Flag’s old colleagues like Karen Fukuhara’s Katana or Idris Elba’s Bloodsport come after Peacemaker to avenge the young colonel’s murder like most may have expected, Grillo’s casting has confirmed that his father will instead be the one to do so. In his announcement post on Instagram, Gunn gave a brief tease of what to expect from Grillo’s inclusion, claiming that “Christopher Smith and Rick Sr. have a little unfinished business to take care of…” Whatever events might unfold through that business is sure to provide the fans with plenty of entertaining surprises.
What Could Frank Grillo’s Casting Mean For Peacemaker’s Second Season?
With Grillo joining the cast of Peacemaker, James Gunn certainly wasn’t kidding when he mentioned DC’s plans to incorporate animated projects into the DCU’s main narrative and have (most of) the same live-action actors voice their characters as well. This approach is certainly a revolutionary new direction for the franchise, especially when it comes to telling stories that may not necessarily work as well or may even be straight-up impossible to tell in the live-action medium. With Flag Sr. already being one of the first to make the leap from animation to live-action, it’s safe to assume that he will be surviving the events of Creature Commandos. When he finally makes his over to Peacemaker, chances are that he and Smith will be going head-to-head at some point. When that happens, the fans can expect to see another brutal and epic showdown similar to what went down between Smith and Flag II.
Much like his son, Flag Sr. is a military man, a decorated war veteran. Seeing just how much of a strong and brutal soldier Jr. was, Sr. is more than certain to be a force to be reckoned with. In the fight between the late colonel and Peacemaker, the latter barely won and only did so after he was ultimately forced to kill his opponent. If that previous fight is anything to go by, Peacemaker should be prepared for an even greater and deadlier showdown that might be even more difficult for him to emerge from victoriously. Luckily, Peacemaker is not alone in this case, as he now has a loyal team to back him up. This also includes his friend Adrian Chase/Vigilante, who, despite his clumsiness and lack of social intelligence, is quite a diligent fighter and has been shown to recover surprisingly quickly from wounds and injuries that would be considered life-threatening.
So far, even though it’s only been through casting announcements and brief image teases, both James Gunn and Peter Saffron have given DC fans plenty to look forward to. While no one other than them knows what’s in store with the inclusion of Rick Flag Sr., the announcement of it has already created a variety of speculations. Peacemaker may have found redemption in Season 1, but it already looks like he’ll have to do even more if he wants to survive the vengeance of Flag’s father in Season 2.
