Michael Fassbender stars as a deep-cover CIA agent in new espionage thriller The Agency
We all get the call to return home from time to time, whether it’s a literal phone call or the need to return to some old stomping ground. A covert CIA agent ordered to get back to London Station faces an incredibly high-stakes homecoming in the premiere of the new spy thriller series The Agency.
Academy Award nominee Michael Fassbender stars as Martian, a CIA agent pulled out of his undercover mission to return to the agency’s London office in order to find a missing agent. After disappearing from his former life without a trace so long ago, Martian is reunited with his old flame, Sami Zahir (Jodie Turner-Smith), a professor of social anthropology who may or may not also be “in the game” — as they say in the international intrigue business.
Big boss station agent Bosko (Richard Gere), and Henry, the director of operations (played by Jeffrey Wright), try to keep Martian in line and on task as his mission spills out into a twisted game of espionage. A mentor figure to Martian, Henry does his best to relate to his agent, but it’s clear he is playing both sides in order to get Martian to do the agency’s dirty work.
Part of a team that handles long-term undercover missions for the CIA, Martian is trained to do what is necessary for the job. But what happens when an agent begins questioning his organization? In one particularly tense scene, Martian sits opposite Dr. Blake (Harriet Sansom Harris) in an intimidating slate-grey interrogation room, and tells her exactly how it is.
“Lie to everyone. Pretend to be someone you’re not. Risk your life on a daily basis. No glamour, no exploding watch. I believe there’s one type of agent, the insane,” Martian monologues at the doctor, before concluding, “You’re not trying to help me, doctor. You’re worried I may have somehow become sane.”
Sanity and independent thought are liabilities to an agency like the CIA, which relies on its agents to do exactly what they are asked — often at the expense of personal safety and comfort. Having sunk years of his career into the agency, Martian’s latest assignment forces him to face himself both as a man and an agent.
Produced by Hollywood heavyweight George Clooney and his frequent collaborator, producer and director Grant Heslov, the series is based on a French espionage thriller, Le Bureau des Légendes, which followed agents in France’s external security service as they worked long-term undercover missions outside of France. The original series aired for five seasons between 2015 and 2020, garnering international attention, including some high-profile viewers.
“The one thing that I feel terrible about is I probably can’t watch this, because I hate watching myself,” Gere told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview, admitting he and his wife “were hooked on” the original French thriller series. “She’ll watch it on her own — she will, I know her,” he quipped.
Fassbender, too, shared that he connected with the show as a viewer, telling EW, “This doesn’t really happen to me a lot, but I actually thought while I was watching, ‘I wonder what I could do in that role?’ ”
The Irish actor applied a psychologist’s lens to the role, saying, “There are sociopathic elements there where the same rules don’t apply to [Martian] because he knows better and he is effective and gets the job done.”
The Agency premieres on Friday, December 6, on Paramount+