Here’s how George R. R. Martin influenced the Peacemaker Season 2 finale

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The season finale of Peacemaker could hint at what’s coming in James Gunn’s DC Universe, and it actually took inspiration from George R.R. Martin, the creator of Game of Thrones. Be warned: spoilers follow…

Christopher Smith has been through a lot. He discovered a parallel universe using the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, a universe where his father and brother hadn’t died. However, this new reality was one where Nazi Germany had won World War II.

We also learned that Rick Flag Sr. was secretly working with Lex Luthor in the main timeline. Their goal was to find a universe where they could imprison metahumans. At the end of Peacemaker Season 2, Flag captured Smith and trapped him in this universe, which is called Salvation.

This unusual prison seems like something out of the comic book series Salvation Run, and the creator of Game of Thrones helped design it.

George R. R. Martin originally pitched Salvation to DC Comics in the 1990s.

In 2007, DC Comics released the limited series Salvation Run, which was connected to the larger Final Crisis storyline written by Grant Morrison.

In Salvation Run, Amanda Waller sends supervillains to a distant planet after a series of disasters on Earth. This storyline appears to be laying the groundwork for the next Superman movie, Man of Tomorrow.

Apparently, Martin first proposed the idea for this comic series way back in the 1990s, as revealed in a blog post from 2007 by the creator of Game of Thrones.

He shared that his initial concept, originally called ‘Exiles in Paradise,’ was intended as a standalone story separate from the regular DC Comics universe. This freedom would have allowed him and his co-writer, John J. Miller, to feature a wide range of villains without being constrained by established continuity.

James Gunn revealed that the story ‘Salvation Run’ served as the basis for the season finale of ‘Peacemaker’ and will be incorporated into the future of the DC Universe.

— ScreenTime (@screentime) October 10, 2025

The writer explained that the idea for the story came from how Britain historically dealt with criminals in the 1700s. Like the convicts sent to Australia with life sentences – meaning there was no chance of release – the characters in the story were also trapped with no way out.

People would live full lives – they’d die, grow, fall in love, and have families. There would be conflict and war, but over time, a new society would emerge from the initial hardship. While some of the bad guys would meet their end on this new world, others would have an opportunity to turn their lives around and find forgiveness.

DC approved the idea, and Martin and Miller both tried to launch the series, but were unsuccessful and moved on. Eventually, Bill Whigham took charge and reimagined the story as taking place within the established DC Universe, rather than as an external tale.

Ultimately, because the creator of Game of Thrones had a past connection to DC, James Gunn was able to incorporate the ‘Salvation Run’ storyline into the season finale of Peacemaker.

Curious about what happened after that big cliffhanger? Check out our guide to the post-credit scenes from Peacemaker Season 2, including a surprising connection back to the very first episode.

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2025-10-10 15:20