David Denman Spills On His ‘Peacemaker’ Season 2 Character Finally Being Revealed: “I Did Everything I Could To Not Tell Anybody”

David Denman is proud to finally be able to tell the world who he is playing in Peacemaker.

**Spoilers ahead for the Season 2 premiere of Peacemaker**

In last Thursday’s brand new episode of the HBO Max action comedy, Denman was revealed to be the dead brother of Chris Smith/Peacemaker (John Cena). The reveal came as Cena’s character was exploring another dimension where his home life was not shattered by the early death of Keith (Denman).

While other actors have had their DC character names and posters publicized by the streaming service pre-release, Denman has had to sit in the shadows and wait, careful not to spoil anything prior to the premiere. Now, that weight has been lifted.

“It’s actually been fun not to be able to tell anybody anything, you know, because it keeps everyone intrigued and everyone guessing,” Denman told DECIDER during a recent interview. “My friends and family know sort of what I had to go through while we filmed it, but now it’ll be nice for everyone to get to find out what it is. I’m a fan of the show, so I really wanted the surprise to be there. So I did everything I could to not tell anybody or talk about it.”

In Season 1, it was explained that Chris and Keith’s father, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick), forced his two sons to fight for his own twisted sense of enjoyment, which resulted in the death of the elder brother at the hands of the younger one. Now, history has been rewritten as James Gunn‘s now mostly-rebooted DCU explores the concept of multiple dimensions.

As for what fans can expect from his character and the rest of Peacemaker Season 2, The Office alum told DECIDER that there is still so much in store for Keith, Chris, and the rest of the gang.

Check out DECIDER’s full interview with Denman below.

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DECIDER: The secret is out, you play Keith Smith, Peacemaker’s brother. How does it feel to finally be able to say that out loud after months of secrecy?

DAVID DENMAN: It’s going to be great. It’s actually been fun not to be able to tell anybody anything, you know, because it keeps everyone intrigued and everyone guessing. People know I’m in it and people know that I’m doing it and my friends and family know sort of what I had to go through while we filmed it, but now it’ll be nice for everyone to get to find out what it is. I’m a fan of the show, so I really wanted the surprise to be there. So I did everything I could to not tell anybody or talk about it.

Have you gotten any outlandish guesses? Have people come up to you in the street and been like, “You’re this person,” and you’re like, “No, I’m not Batman.”

I don’t know. I know there was one guy who was asking, but now I can’t even remember who it was because I don’t — I’m not a big comic book guy. If they say something, unless it’s Batman or one of these big guys, I’m not going to know who it is. And everyone assumes, you know, because it’s James Gunn, you’re going to probably be some obscure character that he’s pulled out of the universe, which is exactly what happened, you know? 

This is a reunion for you and James after Brightburn. What did it mean to come back and get to work with him again? And, I know you’ve worked with Mike Schur [on The Office] who has a strict “no assholes” rule on set. What is James’ equivalent of that?

I mean, James is incredibly loyal to his actors that he hires. They come as friends and his family, you know, there’s a reason that he puts the same people in stuff over and over again. I’ve known James for 20 years and he’s always been incredibly kind. I auditioned for something in Guardians. He wrote me a lovely note saying how great I was, but they just went in another direction, and I just for Superman, I never felt like I wasn’t going to eventually work with him, but I didn’t know what this part would be. That was great to get this part. I also knew Steve Agee from Brightburn. I knew Freddie [Stroma], we did 13 Hours together ten years ago, and I knew Jen [Holland], obviously. So the only people I didn’t know were Danielle [Brooks] and John [Cena], and Danielle and I went to the same [school]. We went to Juilliard at different times, but we immediately bonded over that experience. It was really like coming into a family. James is so good at creating an environment, a safety net for us all to fail. He allows us to improv and he also improvises with us.

He sits there with a microphone and a speaker where, you know, all the cast and crew will get to hear and he throws out lines and he’s laughing. So, we get to do these things and and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter because we just we won’t use it. That is such a joy to be able to work in that environment. There’s just a level of trust he has with his actors, too. You know, you’re able to roll with it. And so it was a joy to get back to work with them. Although this is the first time James actually directed me, so that was fun. 

You mentioned being a fan of the show, how much did you get on your character coming in? I also wonder if your mind ever wandered thinking about the infinite versions of Keith in the different dimensions and how that may have impacted your performance?

Well, that other stuff you can’t really think about because you can only deal with your reality. And what your reality is, is this is the father you have. This is the home you guys are living in. There are heroes in society who are dealing with this. This Chris is a troubled Chris — as you find out as the season goes on — in his own way, that’s different than, you know, the other Chris of our reality. So all you can do is play the circumstances that are presented in front of you. I mean, the infinite possibilities of the DCU by creating those portals is pretty fun. And, who knows what will happen and where you might end up and show up. Because I think that’s part of what James is creating here with this. But the only things I knew that I had to have, is they wanted someone as big or bigger than John, and they wanted somebody who had blue eyes, who looked a little bit like the kid who was in Season 1. And that’s pretty much all we had to go on. And then everything else James created, you know? 

The first episode of Peacemaker Season 2 is now streaming on HBO Max.

If you’re new to HBO Max, you can sign up for as low as $9.99/month with ads, but an ad-free subscription will cost $16.99/month.

If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the discounted Disney+ Bundles with Hulu and HBO Max. With ads, the bundle costs $16.99/month and without ads, $29.99/month.