Summary:
- Peacemaker Season 2 will follow the plot of Rick Flag Sr. trying to kill Peacemaker.
- Rick Flag Sr. first appeared in Creature Commandos and is dead set on taking revenge for his son’s death.
- Here’s a rundown of why Rick Flag Sr. wants to kill Peacemaker and what happened so far.
DCU is back with its third entry with Peacemaker Season 2. Season 2 takes place one month after the events of Superman and brings back several characters from previous DC shows and movies, including Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, Maxwell Lord, and Rick Flag Sr. Rick Flag Sr. first appeared in the animated series Creature Commandos and is the father of Colonel Rick Flag Jr.
While Peacemaker Season 2, just like James Gunn’s other works, will be a character-driven story, the story will unfold against the backdrop of Rick Flag Sr. hunting Peacemaker. Since these events tie back to The Suicide Squad, it helps to know the context. Here’s why Rick Flag Sr. wants to kill Peacemaker.
Related:
- Peacemaker Season 2: Will Rick Flag Junior Return in Season 2
- Peacemaker Season 2: Can Superman Make a Cameo in the Second Season
- Peacemaker Season 2 Timeline Explained
- Peacemaker Season 2 Total Episode Count and Titles Explained
Why Rick Flag Sr. Wants to Kill Peacemaker?
Rick Flag Sr. wants to kill Peacemaker to take revenge for his son, Rick Flag Jr.’s death. These events tie back to James Gunn’s first DC outing, The Suicide Squad. At the end of that movie, Peacemaker ends up stabbing Rick Flag Jr. and killing him. He does so on orders from Amanda Waller to protect Flag from exposing the involvement of the U.S. government in illegal experiments.
Rick Flag Sr. currently serves as the Director of A.R.G.U.S. (Advanced Research Group Uniting Super-Humans), which is the parent organization of Suicide Squad that deals with metahumans.
Why Rick Flag Sr. Looks Different in Peacemaker than Creature Commandos
Rick Flag Sr. has black hair in Superman and Peacemaker Season 2, but it is white in Creature Commandos. This is because actor Frank Grillo’s scheduling conflicts with another movie where he had to keep his hair black. He is shown as an old, wise, but brutal war colonel in Creature Commandos. So he is supposed to look a little aged, showing he has experience in matters of war and conflict.
However, since then, James Gunn has given an in-universe explanation for this change:
Rick Flag Sr. is an incredibly vain man and easily swayed by women and his ego being attended to, so I think the guy dyes his hair. I think in Season 2 of Peacemaker, we got a dyed beard (John Economos), and we also have dyed hair, which is Rick Flag.
Is Rick Flag Sr. a Villain in Peacemaker Season 2
“Not everyone in the DCU is black or white – most are shades of gray” – James Gunn
James Gunn has expressed that no character in the DCU is inherently good or bad. And rightfully so, since nuanced characters make for a nuanced world, which makes for good storytelling. “We’re world-building, not story-building,” Gunn said. Perhaps Gunn put it best when he opened up about the moral complexities of characters in the DCU.
