James Gunn might be making Warner Bros more and more uncomfortable with Peacemaker Season 2, but they’re not the only ones. After an episode that has John Cena dancing in a way that harkens to symbolism of World War II era Germany, Fortnite has pulled the dance from players’ use and may refund soon for anyone who purchased the motion. It all comes as a result of Fortnite realizing what the dance references.
We’re disabling the Peaceful Hips Emote in Fortnite as we inquire into our partner’s creative intentions in this collab emote. Assuming it’s not coming back, we’ll issue refunds in the next few days. Sorry folks.
— Fortnite Status (@FortniteStatus) September 28, 2025
Given that Peacemaker has been a superhero show featuring cameos from Superman (and seemingly integral to understanding the new DCU), some market analysts are wondering what in the world Warner Bros is doing with their properties. It’s not every day a brand tied with lunchboxes, backpacks and action figures decides to have heroes dance in remembrance of real world evil.
Just figured out the that the choreography of the Peacemaker dance this season is a swastika #Peacemaker pic.twitter.com/478HEltdrW
— Icrazydood (@icrazydood) September 26, 2025
And now that the Fortnite developers realize the dance may be a reference to Germany of the 1940s, it’s obvious why they’ve realized they must remove the item immediately. It’s especially awful given the rise in life-stealing violence we’ve witnessed over the last weeks with violent evildoers writing ideological messages on the casings of their weapons before committing acts of unbelievable cruelty.
But if you’re expecting James Gunn to get a handle on himself with a direct denial or mea culpa, that doesn’t seem to be happening just yet.
James Gunn acknowledges his scripts are inspired by real life events and/or patterns.
James Gunn acknowledges his scripts are based on real life and/or patterns in the real world.
In light of John Cena doing a dance that is claimed to harken to Germany’s worst atrocities, James Gunn and Warner Bros should likely be coming out forcefully with denials and clarity as to what in the world this season is about. Instead, the world is getting a smorgasbord of word salad vagueness that is short of what one would expect when third parties are immediately pulling your content. It sort of feels like we’re back in Jimmy Kimmel territory all over again. And it begins to beg the question: is James Gunn cut out for running all of DC instead of just being an anti-hero making machine in isolated stories and films?
That’s something Warner Bros will have to decide over the coming years.
In the meantime, it’s not a great look for DC to be connected with a dance that may have originated in a Donald Duck cartoon from the war era in which he has a nightmare he’s been forced into Adolf’s army.
Donald Duck has a nightmare about being a Nazi in Disney’s Oscar-winning classic DER FUEHRER’S FACE (1943). According to director Jack Kinney, “We heard that Hitler burned every copy he could find. We loved that.” pic.twitter.com/WjQ9VwwJpf
— Vincent Alexander (@NonsenseIsland) December 5, 2019
