In DC's Peacemaker, John Cena stars as a man who believes in peace at any cost, no matter how many people he needs to kill. The series extends the world created for executive producer James Gunn's 2021 film
The Suicide Squad and recently began streaming Season 2.
The sound team behind the show includes supervising sound editor Peter Brown and re-recording mixers Joe Barnett and Adam Jenkins. Brown is Emmy-nominated for his work on The Mandalorian, and was responsible for sculpting a soundscape that captures the gritty crunch of Peacemaker’s brawls, the otherworldly hum of the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, and the raucous energy of a dance sequence that became a viral sensation in Season 1.
Barnett and Jenkins are veterans of Dune and
The Batman. Together, they weaved a sonic tapestry that amplifies the emotional weight of Chris Smith’s fractured loyalties and the eerie allure of alternate dimensions, making gunshots, quips and quiet moments hit with visceral impact. Their work helped transform the 11th Street Kids’ fractured dynamic into a living, breathing pulse, culminating in a final three episodes that feel like a sonic reinvention of the series itself.
Showrunner James Gunn had limited availability for the mix on Season 1, and was only available on Saturday mornings, working remotely from Atlanta. His long-time picture editor, Fred Raskin, handled much of the supervisor duties. Raskin had worked with Brown on several films in the past, and Brown was instrumental in bringing the rest of the sound team on-board.
Three years later, as Season 2 was coming together, the team was asked back by the producers to handle the mix, this time at WB. The tools they used were pretty standard, and they were able to seamlessly port over their mix setup from Formosa relatively easily. Gear included an Avid S6 console with the latest Pro Tools release, Fabfilter EQ and compressors. Isotope 11, Hush, dxRevive and Clear were used to handle noise and for processing.
Some of the show's most challenging aspects were conveying the power and detail of a super action comedy while still hearing every syllable of the cast's dialog. One of the more complex scenes was the bar fight in the first episode. The source music had to play as loud as the actors were projecting. Then, when the fight starts, it transitions to score and back as the scene modulates.
The scene goes into a subjective space as the Harcourt character gets dealt the knockout blow and the source transforms into a trippy, muted, multi-tap delayed, reverby chaos until she gets thrown onto the ground, which then hands off to a piece of score that's supported by sound design. In all, about seven perspective changes play out, all supporting the story without seeming gimmicky.