Superman: Man of Tomorrow Set Photo Hints at Return to Major Peacemaker Season 2 Location

A sneaky detail in James Gunn's Man of Tomorrow filming wrap announcement might have confirmed that the DCU sequel will return to a familiar location from Peacemaker Season 2. DC Studios' John Cena-led series directly set up major plot points in Man of Tomorrow while also successfully weaving Christopher Smith and the 11th Street Kids into the larger DCU narrative. Peacemaker's Season 2 introduced many major locations, such as an alternate reality where Nazis won (Earth X) and the newly built Checkmate headquarters. The show's sophomore run also advanced many DCU stories, like completing the heel turn of Frank Gillo's Rick Flag Sr. due to his alliance with Lex Luthor and the discovery of a dimension-turned-metahuman prison called Salvation. 

In a recent Instagram post, DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn confirmed that filming for Man of Tomorrow has already wrapped, showing off multiple set photos of Nicholas Hoult diving into a lake and the sequel's creative team taking a commemorative photo in a wooded lakeside setting. 

James Gunn, who also serves as writer and director of the 2026 Superman sequel, described filming Man of Tomorrow as a joyful experience and expressed gratitude to the cast and crew. 

These wrap photos are more than just a celebration of Man of Tomorrow's milestone; they hide an important yet subtle detail that could hint at the sequel's plot. The remote forest-and-lake setting closely matches the wilderness environment of Salvation, the alternate dimension introduced in Peacemaker Season 2 as a metahuman prison planet, hinting that the location will appear in Man of Tomorrow.

Gunn has been vocal about Salvation's importance to the larger DCU. In October 2025, following the game-changing Peacemaker Season 2 finale, Gunn confirmed that Salvation is an "incredibly important thing" in DCU's future: 

"I'm leaving Peacemaker stranded on the planet Salvation. And that's going to be an incredibly important thing in the future of the DCU."

The DC Studios boss also reiterated that the discovery of Salvation is driven by ARGUS' (and largely, the government's) desire to "help humanity" by sending metahumans to that remote dimension: 

"...And we see finally, the presentation of something really important to the DCU as a whole, which is the presentation of Salvation to the Secretary of Defense... And we learn that the reason they found Salvation is not to help humanity in any real way... Well, they're trying to help humanity, but they're helping humanity by sending the metahumans into Salvation. Villainous metahumans, they say, but metahumans. And this does come from the comics."

Gunn ended by teasing more of Salvation's presence in the DCU, pointing out that it is "part of [the DCU's] larger story:"

"There is a comic called Salvation that is a limited series in which Amanda Waller and Rick Flag say, 'Screw it, there's all these metahumans that keep getting into prison and out of prison. F--k it, we don't care what happens to them. This isn't about justice. We're going to send them to this other planet where they can't get off.' Well that's sort of where we're beginning a part of our larger story in the DCU in this moment."

In a separate interview around the same time, Gunn also confirmed the three key characters in DCU's Salvation storyline: Lex Luthor, Superman, and Rick Flag Sr. It's no coincidence that these same three pillars are also central to Man of Tomorrow.

Including Salvation in Man of Tomorrow (a movie set to premiere on July 9, 2027) is a no-brainer, and the fact that Nicholas Hoult is present in the same location suggests that Lex Luthor will visit this isolated planet to see what's in store for metahumans when they are sent there. His presence makes sense, considering his team was part of the group that discovered Salvation in the first place. 

While these set photos suggest a Salvation sequence was among the final shots, it's worth noting that large-scale productions like Man of Tomorrow almost never film scenes in chronological order. 

Salvation's potential presence in Man of Tomorrow could also mean that there is a good chance that John Cena's Peacemaker could show up in the sequel, which makes sense because he is the only one (currently) trapped on the remote planet. It will be fascinating to see an interaction between Peacemaker and Lex Luthor. 

Why Salvation's Inclusion In Man of Tomorrow Is Exciting 

Outside of the threat of Brainiac and the emergence of Justice League heroes across the world in Man of Tomorrow, bringing back Salvation in the Superman sequel adds more depth to its storytelling since it explores the moral and political conflict of the planet being a metahuman prison (a story thread that was largely not touched on in Peacemaker Season 2). 

Seeing Superman, Lois Lane, and the Justice Gang react to Salvation in real time creates instant tension, one that would directly affect their views of the government, Rick Flag Sr., and other related figures, and it could lead to escalating tension. 

It's possible that the conversation about Salvation would occur early in the film, before it is temporarily sidelined as Superman, Lex, and Rick Flag Sr. decide to set aside their differences and work together against the looming Brainiac threat. This places their alliance in a much more precarious situation, with all of them needing to preserve it not out of trust, but out of necessity to save Earth from a literal invasion. 

Once the Brainiac conflict dies down, Superman would likely revert to discussing the moral complexities surrounding the Salvation planet, which could explain why his alliance with Lex is most likely a one-off rather than an ongoing thing. 

While it seems unlikely that Lex would trap Superman in Salvation, it's possible that ARGUS may already have sent other metahumans to that dimension, which raises the stakes for Superman's opposition and potentially forces him to tap a response team and form the Justice League to save those trapped on that distant planet.