Peacemaker Season 2 Is James Gunn's Apology For His Many Sins Against Birds

The following contains spoilers for the second episode of season 2 of "Peacemaker." 

Writer, director, and producer James Gunn has never shown hesitation toward some onscreen ultraviolence, from his early days pushing the R-rating of "Slither" to its absolute limit, all the way through to his recent Marvel and DC projects. Meta-humans, humans, and all kinds of animals are fair game, too (though apparently he did discover that violence towards dogs is a hair too far for most audiences). In the 2021 film "The Suicide Squad," written and directed by Gunn, there seemed to be a whole lot of violence directed toward birds — so much, in fact, that he ended up tweeting about it at one point to try and reassure fans that no, he does not "hate birds." 

Enter Eagly, the digital, adorable bald eagle who serves as Peacemaker/Christopher Smith's (John Cena) best friend and sidekick on Gunn's "The Suicide Squad" spin-off series, "Peacemaker." Eagly seems to be Gunn's way of apologizing to all of the bird watchers and serious ornithologists out there, because the feathered fellow sure is lovable. In the first season he got to do a bit of fighting and even tried to bring Chris a nice squirrelly snack,. In season 2, he gets a chance to really go to town on some humans, and it feels like Gunn's saying sorry to the birds (and bird nerds) and offering them a bit of chaotic catharsis. 

For those of you who haven't seen "The Suicide Squad," just know that Michael Rooker's character Savant uses his skills to kill a cute bird with a ball early on in the film (though he does later end up with another bird of the same species eating his brains). Then, after Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) is introduced to a whole flock of beautiful tropical birds by Corto Maltese's dictator, Presidente General Silvio Luna (Juan Diego Botto), the birds are all trapped in their aviary and burned alive by rebels. That's a whole lot of avian awfulness. But in the "Peacemaker" season 2 episode "A Man Is Only as Good as His Bird," Eagly takes the opportunity to cause some serious carnage against the humans invading his home turf.

When A.R.G.U.S. agents led by Langston Fleury (Tim Meadows) raid Peacemaker's home, they're met with the beak and talons of one seriously miffed bird, and it's honestly kind of a delight. Eagly absolutely decimates the A.R.G.U.S. agents despite being a lone eagle against a whole squad of armed agents. He's plucking eyes, slashing throats, and doing the kind of destruction his dear ol' dad would have been proud of in his "Suicide Squad" days, prior to his attempts at being a better man. Since Eagly is one of the most lovable characters in all of Gunn's DC Universe, and he just got his own killer action sequence, maybe the director really doesn't hate birds after all? 

Fans can check out all of the bird-related carnage (with plenty of the regular kind too) when new episodes of "Peacemaker" drop on Thursdays on HBO Max.