I’m not sure if Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a good movie of if it is a great work of star self-mythologizing. The film version saw two of the most beautiful people in the world — Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie — playing a married couple who do not realize that both are assassins until they are hired to kill each other.
The film itself eventually became subsumed by what happened during its production: Jolie and Pitt became romantically involved and then got married. The two eventually divorced, but at the time of the movie’s release, the allure of seeing some reflection of their real relationship onscreen was a huge reason why Mr. & Mrs. Smith became a hit, and wound up grossing almost half a billion dollars worldwide.
I’m not sure what that means for this new TV version of the same premise, with Donald Glover and Maya Erskine in the Pitt and Jolie roles. The concept is slightly different this time — instead of a couple who learns of their spouses’ secret identities, two strangers are paired to assume an identity as a married couple as part of their jobs as spies. So the tension is not the surprise of learning of a deception, it’s the suspense of seeing if they can pull off a shared deception. Take a look at the trailer below:
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The show was first announced with Glover starring opposite Phoebe Waller-Bridge, but she eventually left the project and was replaced by Erskine. Here is the series’ official synopsis:
In this version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, two lonely strangers land jobs working for a mysterious spy agency that offers them a glorious life of espionage, wealth, world travel, and a dream brownstone in Manhattan. The catch? New identities in an arranged marriage as Mr. and Mrs. John and Jane Smith. Now hitched, John and Jane navigate a high-risk mission every week while also facing a new relationship milestone. Their complex cover story becomes even more complicated when they catch real feelings for each other. What’s riskier: espionage or marriage?
Mr. & Mrs. Smith will premiere on Prime Video on February 2; all eight episodes will premiere on that date.
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