Who Are Peacemaker’s Butterflies: Powers, Origins & Theories

Warning: Contains spoilers for Peacemaker episode 3.

The DCEU TV show Peacemaker has introduced the strange Butterflies as Argus’ villains, but the powers and origins of these creatures still remain largely mysterious. James Gunn, who is the primary mind behind the adaptations of The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker as well as the MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy, is known for his comic deep dives and pulling out obscure characters to include. However, he is also skilled at inventing new characters and creatures for the properties that he adapts.

When Clemson Murn (Chukwudi Iwuji) first informs Peacemaker (John Cena) that he’ll be working for Argus again, the name Project Butterfly is raised. Peacemaker has his first encounter with a Butterfly in Peacemaker episode 1 after he sleeps with a slight woman and is then attacked by her. In Peacemaker episode 3 the team go on their first mission as they seek to assassinate a United States senator who is secretly a Butterfly and discover that his whole family are also Butterflies.

Peacemaker’s father, Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick), is set up as the villain White Dragon in Peacemaker episode 2, “Best Friend, For Never.” While he will presumably play an instrumental role in Peacemaker’s own journey, the DCEU TV show has made it clear that the Butterflies pose an international threat. So, what are Peacemaker’s Butterflies, what are their powers, and what is their larger story? Here is everything we know so far and theories on what the Butterflies are.

What Are Peacemaker’s Butterflies?

The Butterflies, as they are represented in the DCEU timeline, are shown in the most detail in Peacemaker episode 3, “Better Goff Dead.” When Peacemaker and Harcourt are watching the house from the sniper’s nest, they see the family of Butterflies pour a strange goo into bowls and then eat it with something that protrudes from their mouths in a similar way to a butterfly’s proboscis. When Peacemaker shoots senator Goff in the face with a shotgun, blowing his head open, a large insect-like creature emerges. The creature has iridescent wings and a large body, and seems to escape from the situation unscathed.

Peacemaker’s Butterflies appear to be some sort of parasitic creature that takes over a host’s body. Given the map of active Butterflies, it seems unlikely that they are people born with the creatures inside them as maturity would take a long time, but rather they are creatures that infest a living person and take over their bodies. The post-credits scene for Peacemaker episode 1 potentially alludes to this being the way that they work by referencing scabies, a skin condition where mites burrow under the skin where they then live and lay eggs. The origin of the Butterflies is unclear, but given that Peacemaker is a sequel to The Suicide Squad which saw Starro arrive from outer space, the possibility that the Butterflies too are extraterrestrial and being tracked by Argus for a similar reason makes sense. As far as motivations go, the fact that the Butterflies have taken over the whole family of a United States senator suggests a long-term goal to take over the world by claiming important positions in world leadership.

Peacemaker’s Butterflies Powers Explained

The Butterflies themselves appear to be relatively weak, and outside of a host body would presumably have little in the way of special powers. The creature itself appears to be able to withstand a decent amount of damage when within a host, as the one from senator Goff survived, but they can still be killed as no Butterfly emerged from the one Peacemaker killed in Peacemaker episode 1 with the sonic boom.

A person inhabited by a Butterfly in Peacemaker gains powers similar to a metahuman, including extreme resilience and strength that far exceeds the physical limitations of a traditional human body. However, this comes at a cost to the human infested as the Butterfly appears to take over their mind and presumably does long-term damage to the inside of the human as it gestates within them. There is possibly a relation to the ophiocordyceps unilateralis, an insect-pathogenic fungus that will insert itself into the brain of an ant, take control of its body, and lead it in a zombie-like condition to do its bidding in a manner that continues the fungus’ life-cycle.

Are Peacemaker’s Butterflies From DC Comics?

The Butterflies that appear in HBO Max’s Peacemaker do not have a direct origin in any DC comics and are likely purely an invention from the mind of James Gunn. DC comics do have many butterfly-themed characters including Madame Butterfly, Iron Butterfly, and their original black female superhero The Butterfly. However, these heroes have powers based around flight and do not bear any resemblance to the Butterflies in Peacemaker. Similarly, DC has a character called Insect Queen, originally Superman’s love interest Lana Lang, who has the ability to control insects, but not in a way that equates to anything from Peacemaker and one of Batman’s villains is Killer Moth, but his powers are related to flight and his cocoon gun. It seems unlikely that any of these DC Comics characters will be related to the Butterflies in Peacemaker; however, James Gunn has previously made some drastic changes to comic book characters’ origins and powers, so anything is possible. Ultimately, it seems that the Butterflies are entirely new and Gunn’s adaptation of White Dragon will be the villain who is more closely related to the DC comics.

Who Is Controlling Peacemaker’s Butterflies?

With what Peacemaker has shown of the Butterflies so far, it appears that their power is global, which begs the question of whether there is a central individual controlling the Butterflies that might serve as Peacemaker’s “big bad.” While one of the above-mentioned characters could have orchestrated some mass infestation based upon their namesakes, it seems most probable that the Butterflies are a decentralized power structure. If a single being oversaw the mind control of large numbers of humans across the globe, then the plot of Peacemaker would too closely resemble that of The Suicide Squad with Starro. Additionally, if there was a single person controlling the Butterflies, Argus would presumably target them rather than individual Butterflies. The more likely narrative choice is that the Butterflies will pose a wide threat by their own machinations as a species, while characters like White Dragon and Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) will serve to represent the figurehead villains of Peacemaker.

Peacemaker releases new episodes Thursdays on HBO Max.

About The Author

Faefyx Collington
(487 Articles Published)

Faefyx Collington (They/Them) is a senior features writer for Screen Rant. They’re a British writer of both fiction and non-fiction, focussing on science fiction, fantasy, and mystery for the former and on culture, gender, and current affairs for the latter.
Never content to settle to one thing, Faefyx is also a co-host and producer of the podcast and video series “Unramblings,” and can occasionally be found making music around the internet as well.
Having acquired degrees on both sides of the Atlantic, Fyx has settled (for the moment) in the southern United States where they live with their spouse and an entirely appropriate number of cats.

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