What happens when you put an Emmy winner and an Oscar winner in an action-comedy series together? I don’t know, but we’re about to find out, because Hannah Waddingham has landed her first lead TV role following Ted Lasso’s Season 3 (and possibly series) finale. She’s set to co-star alongside Octavia Spencer in a new untitled spy action-comedy from Skydance TV for Amazon Prime. While details about the show are sparse, I can confirm that it sounds like buckets of fun, and I will 100% be tuning in.
Waddingham and Spencer are set to star and executive produce an 8-episode original series from Tessa Coates for Prime Video. According to a press release from the streamer, the series from Skydance Television had multiple bidders. Amazon won, and it gave the action-comedy a straight-to-series order. Based on the synopsis alone, I totally get why the company was so eager to pick it up. Take a peek at the brief explanation of the series that these two powerhouses are set to lead:
The series, based on an original pitch from Coates, follows two best friends, Judith (Waddingham) and Debbie (Spencer), who know everything about each other … well, almost everything. Judith has been living a double life that Debbie knows nothing about: she is a highly trained assassin. When a hit goes horribly wrong, Judith and Debbie must go on the run together and work to repair their broken friendship—all while being targeted by a mysterious enemy who wants them dead. And only together, can they solve this layered mystery.
Hannah Waddingham playing a spy and Octavia Spencer portraying her bestie who finds out about her double life? Sign me up! This show sounds action-packed and so fun, it also seems like it will be a fantastic story about female friendship, which we love to see.
The Ted Lasso cast member’s enthusiasm about the role is also infectious, and has me hoping this show makes its way onto the 2024 TV schedule (however, it’ll likely come out in a year or two). Waddingham said:
I’m not gonna lie, a few expletives fell out of my face at the prospect of working with the magnificent Ms. Spencer, Tessa Coates’ hugely energetic, exhilarating script, Skydance and Double Dream. To then see the immediate excited response from a mighty beast like Amazon! It’s all just incredibly exciting, and I can’t wait to get our collective teeth into it!
Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios, also said they were “blown away by this one-of-a-kind comedy,” meaning it seems like everyone involved with this show is stoked about it.
Along with the general explanation of the series and its cast getting me all kinds of excited, Hannah Waddingham is uniquely qualified for this action-comedy, which makes it even better. On the 2024 movie schedule, she’ll be featured as part of The Fall Guy cast as well as the Mission: Impossible 8 ensemble. Mix those two highly anticipated action films with her Emmy-winning comedic skills that were on display in Ted Lasso, and you have the perfect person to co-lead an action-comedy with the one and only Octavia Spencer.
Overall, I can’t wait to learn more about this action-comedy, and based on the enthusiastic comments from Waddingham and co. about the show, it sounds like they have a real winner on their hands. Eventually, the series will be available to stream with a Prime Video subscription, and it has the potential to be one of Amazon’s best series. But, while we wait to see if that's true, you can check out one of Apple TV+’s best shows and witness Hannah Waddingham as the legendary Rebecca Welton, by streaming Ted Lasso with an Apple TV+ subscription.
