James Gunn Reveals The One Peacemaker Scene That Made Him Uneasy

James Gunn had one of those awkward-on-paper directing moments in Peacemaker Season 2, and yeah, it involved his wife and John Cena. The payoff? He ended up loving the footage.

Quick refresher: Peacemaker Season 2 hit HBO Max in August 2025. Gunn created the DCU series, with John Cena back as Christopher Smith/Peacemaker, and the core crew all in place: Danielle Brooks as Leota Adebayo, Freddie Stroma as Adrian Chase/Vigilante, Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt, and Steve Agee as John Economos. The finale this season was directed by Gunn himself.

On the show’s official podcast, Gunn and Holland — who are married — talked about the finale moment where Holland’s Harcourt kisses Cena’s Peacemaker. Holland said that, from the actor side, scenes like that are all mechanics and marks, not romance. She also totally gets that it’s a strange thing for a husband to watch, even if that husband is the one calling 'Action.'

Gunn then broke down how unromantic the setup actually was. This wasn’t a quick kiss-and-move-on. It was a precision shot built for maximum cinematic swoon and maximum behind-the-scenes awkwardness:

• They were shooting on a Phantom high-speed camera for slow-motion beauty shots
• Everything had to be choreographed: lean back, come together, hit the exact timing
• The camera did speed ramps (switching from slow-mo to faster motion mid-shot)
• They ran it over and over to nail the timing
• Holland was literally on a lazy Susan while the camera curled around her
• All of it played out in front of roughly 200 to 300 extras, many of them die-hard fans

So yes, directing your spouse to kiss your lead, in slow motion, on a turntable, while an army of onlookers stares — that’ll get in your head. Gunn admits he was not thrilled beforehand. But once they started rolling, the filmmaker brain took over and the awkwardness got replaced with pure nerdy satisfaction at how good it looked.

'Before it happened, I was uncomfortable about it, admittedly. I was like, I don’t want to do this. But then once we were doing it, I didn’t give a shit. I was totally fine. I was looking at the kiss as like, I’m f***ing loving it, because it’s these beautiful shots. Some of our best shots ever in this series are in that sequence.'

Bottom line: what sounds messy in real life turned into one of the slickest sequences Peacemaker has pulled off.

All eight episodes of DC Studios and Warner Bros. Television’s Peacemaker Season 2 are now streaming on HBO Max.