Peacemaker season 2 reminds us that the DCU is a very different place to the MCU by breaking one of Kevin Feige's hard and fast rules in episode 1

The first episode of Peacemaker season 2 is streaming now, and John Cena's Chris Smith is already breaking the rules – at least those of a different superhero universe...

The first episode of the new season (find out more about the new run in our Peacemaker season 2 review), titled 'The Ties That Grind,' catches up with Peacemaker six months after the events of season one. Even though the 11th Street Kids saved the world – probably – from the Butterflies, life has only gotten harder for the gang. Peacemaker, in particular, seems to be very depressed and so he decides to drown his sorrows by throwing a party, fuelled by sex, booze, and drugs.

The latter involves snorting a mountain of cocaine – a drug that was specifically forbidden from appearing on screen in the MCU by Marvel Studios' president Kevin Feige. Shortly before the 2024 release of Deadpool and Wolverine, director Shawn Levy revealed that one of the hard and fast rules that Feige insisted on was that the film cut out the coke (which had featured prominently in the first two Deadpool films).

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"The only rule we were given by Feige is no cocaine… which is absolutely a fact," Levy told the Happy Sad Confused podcast last year. "Early on, Kevin was like, 'Look, we want a fully "Deadpool" Deadpool movie. The only thing maybe is, maybe we don't do all the drug use, the cocaine use with Al and Wade. And we were like 'Yes sir, yep, copy that,' and we went home and literally wrote the joke about Feige requesting no cocaine, and it became one of the first jokes that we wrote."

Of course, Peacemaker takes place in the DC universe – entirely different to Marvel, with seemingly looser restrictions on what appears on screen: including plenty of swearing and nudity if this first episode is anything to go by. (Oh – and for the avoidance of doubt – cocaine is illegal in our real world, too.)

Peacemaker season 2 is streaming now on HBO Max in the US and on NOW in the UK, with new episodes airing Fridays at 9pm on Sky Max and Sky Showcase. For more, check out our guide on how to watch the DC movies in order, and keep up with all the upcoming DC movies and shows heading your way.

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Will Salmon is the Streaming Editor for GamesRadar+. He has been writing about film, TV, comics, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he launched the scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for well over a decade. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places too.