James Gunn says Warner Bros. and DC were okay with ‘Peacemaker’s Superman joke

Throughout its run on HBO Max, Peacemaker has been pretty deliberate about lampooning its brethren in the rest of the DC universe. Thus far, the show has featured jokes about everything from Bat-Mite to Batman, and recently, the series even lampooned Superman himself. The joke comes when Peacemaker suggests that the heroic Kryptonian has a “poop fetish.”

“He uber-liebes the old scheisse, as I understand it,” John Cena‘s titular character explains.

Although some fans found the joke hilarious, others were not amused, saying that it crossed a line around good taste in the DC universe. Some have even wondered whether DC or Warner Bros. signed off on the joke, given how vulgar and gross it is. According to creator James Gunn, though, everyone was totally fine with it. “Neither DC not [sic] Warner Bros ever brought it up,” he explained on Twitter in response to a question about the joke.

During the watch party for episode 5, Gunn also said “I don’t think Superman really has a poop fetish for the record.” Gunn has previously discussed how little supervision he received on Peacemaker, saying that the studio essentially gave him free rein over the project. In the past, Warner Bros. was even interested in bringing Gunn in to direct a Superman project.

“First they came to me and said ‘Superman, Superman, Superman,’ and I said ‘I don’t know.’ Then they said ‘what about Suicide Squad,’ and I said ‘no,'” Gunn said during an interview with Newsweek over the summer of 2021. Of course, Gunn eventually wound up directing The Suicide Squad, a sort sequel/reboot to David Ayer’s 2016 movie Suicide Squad.

Originally, one of Gunn’s ideas for The Suicide Squad was that the team would have to go up against Superman near the end of the film. “The Suicide Squad has to catch Superman for some reason,” Gunn said of his premise during an interview with Filmstarts. “That was all just a vague idea. It’s gotten out of hand or is being controlled by someone. And then this group of lousy super-villains has to face the most powerful hero in the world.”

That idea never came to be, but The Suicide Squad did lead to Peacemaker, which now features the occasional poop fetish joke about the Kryptonian wonder, so it wasn’t a total loss.