This article contains very minor spoilers for Peacemaker episode two.
Peacemaker premiered on HBO Max this Thursday, and DC fans eager for more R-Rated wildness after The Suicide Squad will not be disappointed. Writer/director James Gunn has followed up his 2021 summer blockbuster with something just as bonkers and unhinged. Case in point, one throwaway exchange makes a looney Batman character from the Silver Age part of the DCEU canon. And fans cannot believe it.
The first two episodes of Peacemaker see John Cena’s Christopher Smith continually mocking Steve Agee’s John Economos. So when Economos has to stitch Smith up after a fight in episode two, he’s less than enthused. The tech guy starts listing off people he would rather spend time with than Peacemaker. “I’d rather be with f—–‘ Bat-Mite than you,” Economos snaps, causing every DC fan watching to go back ten seconds.
Yup, it’s official. Bat-Mite is part of the DCEU! For those unaware, Economos provides a hilarious summary of the character, explaining to a confused Smith that he’s “a two-foot-tall interdimensional imp who stans Batman.” Though he was originally a comic relief character from the 1950s/60s, Bat-Mite has made occasional appearances in the comics and other media in the decades since. But a nod to him in this franchise was unexpected.
Bat-Mite has canonically hung around with Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne. Let that sink in.
It’s kind of crazy that Bat-Mite was part of the DCEU before, say, Dick Grayson.
OK, but now that Gunn has namedropped him, he can’t leave it there, right? So let’s start the campaign to get Bat-Mite in season two!
Maybe with Gunn was in charge of the franchise, we might get a Bat-Mite movie?
One fan has taken credit for Peacemaker‘s Bat-Mite reference as they got Gunn talking about the imp on Twitter back in Feb. 2020, around the time he would’ve been writing the scripts.
The first three episodes of Peacemaker are available on HBO Max now.