Why Rick Flag Jr. Is Part of Peacemaker Season 2 & DCU Explained

Peacemaker Season 2 showrunner James Gunn has finally clarified why he decided to provide canon status to Joel Kinnaman‘s Rick Flag Jr. in the DCU. Despite retconning the Justice League’s appearance in 2021’s The Suicide Squad with the freshly introduced Justice Gang to fit the ongoing DCU narrative, Gunn interestingly chose to build upon Flag’s story. In a recent interview, the filmmaker has opened up about his decision to include Kinnaman’s character in the follow-up edition of Peacemaker.

James Gunn explains why he carried Rick Flag Jr. from The Suicide Squad over to DCU

In an interview with Collider, James Gunn revealed that Rick Flag Jr. was already involved with Jennifer Holland’s Emilia Harcourt during the events of The Suicide Squad, and he wanted to make use of this connection to further the plot of Peacemaker Season 2.

“I always knew, from the beginning. Jen [Holland] and I knew that Harcourt and Flag had been having an affair when The Suicide Squad stuff happened. That was her reason for disliking Peacemaker so much, from the very beginning of episode one of Peacemaker,” the director said. 

He further added, “We knew that she had this relationship with him that was not only a sexual relationship, but that’s just the way that they deal with their stuff. It really was a friendship. And so, that was always a plan.”

Gunn further shared that his desire to see Joel Kinnaman in a comedic role also motivated him to include Rick Flag Jr. in Peacemaker Season 2. “Joel’s a good friend of mine. He’s an incredibly funny guy, and people don’t know it. He’s literally never been in a comedy.”

The filmmaker continued, “And so, just allowing him to go out there and be this ridiculous, namby-pamby character was so fun for me. When I was writing it, I was just laughing, knowing I would be making Joel do this. And then, Joel just did it perfectly.”

Having made his debut as Rick Flag Jr. in 2016’s Suicide Squad, Kinnaman returned as the military veteran in Gunn’s soft reboot of the film in 2021. He recently reprised his role in Peacemaker Season 2, effectively establishing his character’s place in the current DCU canon.

Originally reported by Apoorv Rastogi on SuperHeroHype.

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