James Gunn has officially confirmed that a DCU projects that appears to have gone cold (at least on the news front) is still happening. The new head of DC’s screen empire has been very clear that projects will only move ahead when certain obligations are fulfilled (like a viable script), rather than too many adaptations being hastily announced to build hype. But even when things go quiet, that doesn’t mean there’s no progress or that the projects are canceled.
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Gunn has now confirmed that the Waller television series is still in active development for the DC Universe, using the social media platform Threads to personally shut down persistent rumors that the project had been canceled or reworked. The Waller series was first announced as part of the initial DCU slate reveal in January 2023, with Viola Davis set to reprise her role and writers Christal Henry (Watchmen) and Jeremy Carver (Doom Patrol) attached. While details on Waller are still vague, the DC Studios co-CEO provided the first concrete update on the Viola Davis-led series in several months, reassuring fans that Amanda Waller’s story remains a part of the DCU’s future.
When a fan asked Gunn if rumors about “the Waller show being reworked into a Checkmate show” were false, Gunn offered an unambiguous one-word reply, “Yes”. To ensure there was no misunderstanding, another fan pressed for more clarity, asking, “So Waller is still in development?”, to which Gunn again replied with a simple and definitive, “Yes”. This interaction was necessary to counter the pessimistic narrative that had formed around the project, especially after Gunn himself acknowledged at a DC Studios press event in February 2025 that Waller had encountered “a couple of… setbacks, frankly”.
Waller was originally conceived as a direct spinoff from the first season of Peacemaker, intended to explore the immediate fallout of Amanda Waller’s daughter, Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), publicly exposing the existence of Task Force X. However, the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes caused a major halt in production, and the resulting delays forced significant rewrites as the new DCU timeline evolved, rendering that original premise obsolete and leaving the show’s future in limbo until this new confirmation.
Peacemaker Season 2 Establishes a New Order at ARGUS
The upcoming second season of Peacemaker, scheduled to premiere in August 2025, is set to introduce a radically different status quo for the DCU’s clandestine operations, confirming Amanda Waller has been deposed from her position of power. Taking place after a significant time jump of “a couple of years,” the new Peacemaker season will establish Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) as the new head of ARGUS. As the trailers revealed, Flag Sr. is actively using the full resources of the government agency to hunt down Christopher Smith (John Cena) to seek revenge for the death of his son, Rick Flag Jr. (Joel Kinnaman), who was killed by Peacemaker during the events of The Suicide Squad.
Beyond the conflict with ARGUS, Peacemaker Season 2 is also set to wildly expand its lore by embracing high-concept science fiction and multiversal chaos. A key element of this is the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, an apparatus that will seemingly allow the characters to access alternate realities. The first look at these other dimensions has revealed a different version of Peacemaker who sports a jetpack and an inverted dove symbol in an alternate reality where his brother, Keith, is still alive and works alongside him as an armored operative. This dimensional-hopping storyline will also introduce a new version of the White Dragon (Robert Patrick), Peacemaker’s villainous father, who is seen wearing a distinct blue suit of armor. These bizarre new elements, coupled with the introduction of other new characters like Michael Rooker’s Red St. Wild and a mysterious four-eyed gray alien, promise a season that will be both a gritty manhunt and a wildly unpredictable sci-fi adventure.
Peacemaker Season 2 premieres on HBO Max on August 21st.
What do you want to see in Amanda Waller’s solo series? Let us know in the comments.
