James Gunn Reveals Michael Rooker Wasn't The First Peacemaker Season 2 Eagle Hunter — Mystery Actor Recast For Not Fitting The Role

Mystery deepens: James Gunn is keeping the identity of the original Red St. Wild actor under wraps, fueling a fresh wave of fan speculation.

If you watched Peacemaker season 2 and thought, 'Wait, is that Michael Rooker hunting eagles?' you were not hallucinating. Rooker swoops into the DCU as Red St. Wild, the world’s foremost eagle hunter and a straight-up villain. What you didn’t see coming: he wasn’t the original actor for the role.

The last-minute switch

There had been chatter about an unnamed actor quietly exiting season 2. James Gunn finally confirmed it in a reply to a fan on Threads, and he kept it classy while making it clear why the change happened.

'The original actor was a talented guy and a good guy; he just didn’t work in the role. He doesn’t need to get attention for being replaced.'

Translation: the first casting didn’t click, Gunn isn’t naming names, and we all move on.

How Rooker ended up in the DCU (this time)

Gunn called in a favor from one of his long-time collaborators when the St. Wild situation was wobbling. On the season 2 Peacemaker podcast, he laid out how that call went down:

'Things weren’t quite going well, and so I called you up. I said, 'Could you do me a favor? We’ve already spent all of our money on our show. Will you help us out and come in and do this role as a favor?''

Also important for the DCU trainspotters: Gunn says this cameo doesn’t count against Rooker’s DCU 'dance card.' In other words, this emergency assist doesn’t burn his chance to play someone else later.

Peacemaker recast history, because this show has one

• Vigilante was originally played by Chris Conrad, who left during season 1 over 'creative differences.' Gunn has said Conrad had filmed the first five episodes but the character wasn’t working. Freddie Stroma stepped in, and in a fun bit of TV surgery, he even dubbed over some of Conrad’s early lines.

So yes, midstream recasts are kind of a Peacemaker thing at this point. The Rooker move was more of a targeted rescue: get a dependable Gunn regular in, stick the landing, keep the season on rails. Inside baseball, sure, but it worked.

Peacemaker season 2 is streaming now.