2025 is a big year for the DC Universe, and not just because its first movie, James Gunn’s Superman, flies onto the 2025 film calendar in July. One month later, Peacemaker Season 2 will premiere on the 2025 TV schedule, with the Max subscription-exclusive series being shifted over to this new continuity after starting out as a DCEU offering. The first trailer for this new season has arrived, and while there’s a lot to enjoy from it, including appearances from Nathan Fillion’s Guy Garner, Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl and Sean Gunn’s Maxwell Lord, I’m left mainly thinking about a specific question about Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller: where is she following Creature Commandos Season 1?
Here’s some quick background: as a result of The Suicide Squad being loosely considered part of DCU continuity since it was written and directed by James Gunn, like John Cena, Davis is one of the few DCEU holdovers for this new franchise. As such, we heard her vocally reprising Amanda Waller in Creature Commandos Season 1, and the Waller TV series was one of the first DCU projects to be announced. Davis also made two uncredited appearances in Peacemaker Season 1, which aired during the DCEU days, but it seems like we won’t be seeing her in Season 2 if this line from John Economos is any indication:
A.R.G.U.S. has been monitoring Peacemaker ever since Rick Flag Sr. was named director.
We’ve known for a long time that Frank Grillo is coming to Peacemaker Season 2, with this marking the character’s third appearance following Creature Commandos (which is returning for another season) and Superman in two months time. There’s more than enough justification to bring Rick Flag Sr. into the upcoming DC TV show since as the trailer reminds us, Peacemaker, a.k.a. Christopher Smith, killed his son, as depicted in The Suicide Squad. But the fact that Sr. is now running A.R.G.U.S. took me by surprise.
At the end of Peacemaker Season 1, Leota Adebayo, Amanda Waller’s daughter, revealed the existence of Task Force X and Project Butterfly to the public, as well as how her mother was in charge of both. And yet, when Creature Commandos began, Waller was still A.R.G.U.S.’s director, though because Task Force X had been shut down for putting human lives in danger, she was forced to use “monsters” rather than humans for Task Force M. So what happened between then and now that’s resulted in Rick Flag Sr. becoming the new A.R.G.U.S. head honcho?
People who’ve seen Peacemaker, but not Creature Commandos, might just assumes this comes as part of the aftermath of Leota spilling the beans on TV. However, I’m wondering if Amanda Waller’s removal stems from how the events of the aforementioned animated series nearly led to Princess Ilana Rostovic’s plans for world domination succeeding. Maybe sometime after the new Task Force M was formed, Waller’s superiors decided it was time for her to go.
Whether that’s the reason for Rick Flag Sr.’s promotion or something else, that then begs the question of where exactly Amanda Waller is. Is she still at A.R.G.U.S. and just working in a demoted position? Has she managed to finagle her way into a different position in the U.S. government? Or has yet-to-be-revealed events forced her to go into hiding? Maybe her whereabouts will be one of the explored mysteries in Peacemaker Season 2, although again, that doesn’t guarantee we’ll see Viola Davis reprising her role.
My hope is that whatever’s happened to Amanda Waller will set the stage for the Waller TV series. James Gunn acknowledged in February (via Variety) that this project has had a “bumpy road,” but it’s now been re-conceived to follow Peacemaker Season 2. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how things unfold in this next batch of Peacemaker episodes, which start airing on August 21.
