If you thought early on during Peacemaker Season 2’s run on the 2025 TV schedule that the other Earth John Cena’s title character stumbled onto was too good to be true, you were right. It was later revealed to be a Nazi-controlled world, which Christopher Smith was oblivious to despite obvious signs like the United States flag having a swastika on it, the copies of Mein Kampf on the desks at A.R.G.U.S. headquarters and even a giant mural of Hitler in front of the Capitol at the agency. Speaking of the mural, I learned a wild fact about it from Peacemaker Season 2’s production designer: it was there the whole time… literally!
Not only did Chris Smith never notice the mural every time he visited this other world’s A.R.G.U.S., production designer Kalina Invanov informed me during my recent interview with her that the portrait had always been on Peacemaker’s A.R.G.U.S. set rather than only set up for Season 2’s penultimate episode, “Like a Keith in the Night.” This information came to light when I asked Ivanov how uncomfortable it was for her team to put that mural together, to which she answered:
Oh my God, it was really uncomfortable for everybody. And James and the director talked about how to reveal it, and they tried to not reveal it, but it was on the wall. I mean, I insisted that it stays on the wall and they don't show it. So we hid it with plants and stuff like that, but it was there all the time because, really, it needs to be there for the actors so they know they're in another world. But the little flags… I remember thinking about the extras and all of those people who come in and go, like, ‘Oh, there's a Hitler on the wall?’ and trying to keep them quiet in a way. So, nothing like an NDA.
So the next time you use your HBO Max subscription to rewatch “Another Rick Up My Sleeve,” which was the first time we visited Earth-X’s version of A.R.G.U.S., know that John Cena, Jennifer Holland, Joel Kinnaman and more are performing their scenes with a Hitler mural looming nearby. I’m sure setting up the mural early was a good practical move, as it doesn’t look like the easiest thing to move around. So props to the Peacemaker crew for successfully hiding it and making sure it wasn’t accidentally glimpsed in frame too early.
But as Kalina Ivanov explained to me, it was also important for the Hitler mural to go up as soon as possible so that the Peacemaker actors never forgot these particular scenes were happening in a world where the Nazis conquered the United States. It’s like having that mural around added an air of uncomfortableness to that set, which is absolutely appropriate. If you paid close attention earlier on in Season 2, you noticed there weren’t any people of color around, and it was later confirmed that anyone who didn’t fall into the white, straight and Christian mold were imprisoned in camps.
I’m glad those NDAs were followed and nobody spoiled the Hitler mural, or anything about the Nazi Earth, ahead of time. And while I commend Kalina Ivanov and the rest of Peacemaker Season 2’s production design team for the work they poured into making that mural, I also hope we never see that thing again. Hide it in some dark basement corner… or just destroy it. That’s an option too.
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