Richard Gere and Michael Fassbender Tease Their New Spy Thriller Series

In an Entertainment Weekly exclusive, Richard Geere and Michael Fassbender promote their new spy thriller series, The Agency. Jeffrey Wright (Westworld, The Batman, American Fiction) and Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim, The Acolyte) also star in the series, which is slated to be released on Paramount+ with Showtime in late fall. The series is a political espionage thriller based on the French hit series Le Bureau des Légendes.

The Agency follows a covert CIA agent, code-named Martian (Fassbender), after he is ordered to abandon his undercover life and return to work in their London headquarters. Soon after, an old flame reignites, upending his life and endangering his real identity, career, and his mission. Fassbender broke down his character Martian, saying,

“This character, in some ways, is trying to save his soul through two relationships: His lover, who he gets extricated away from when he’s called back when his mission ends, and his daughter, who he hasn’t seen properly for six years. Because to do that kind of job, to have sociopathic tendencies is helpful to be able to get a good night’s sleep, to be able to function the next day, to be able to compartmentalize.”

Last year, Fassbender starred in The Killer, another intense action thriller directed by David Fincher (Seven and Gone Girl). The film received rave reviews. Fassbender played an assassin going through an existential crisis while taking on his employers. The Killer was also based on a French project: the graphic novel series of the same name written by Alexis Nolent and illustrated by Luc Jacamon.

How The New Series Will Compare To The Original

When The Agency begins, the audience meets Fassbender’s character after he’s been in deep cover on a mission for six years. Now, he has to adjust to this new season of his life and answer to a higher power, his boss. Gere plays Bosko, the London Agency Chief with a colorful past, having served as an undercover agent himself. This is only the second television role the movie star has taken in his entire career. Gere shared that he and his wife “were hooked on” the original series. On filming The Agency and working on a television series today, the Hollywood star said,

“What we’re seeing these days, there are beautiful things that are done on TV. I mean, when I was a kid, you didn’t want to do TV — it was just something you didn’t do. It just wasn’t of the highest quality, but now we’re seeing things on TV that are as good or better than almost everything we’re seeing on [movie] screens. It’s hard to even call it television now. It’s a different animal.

Gere explained how it was important to him that Bosko felt “believable.” He described his hope to convey how the experience of working as a field agent, facing danger, and taking lives weigh on Bosko. He is the hardened spy boss and, at the same time, an unorthodox father figure to the agents under him.

The two actors also discussed their love of Bosko and Martian’s complex dynamic. The Agency is gearing up to be a great high-intensity thriller. “[There are] a lot of nail-biting moments, that’s for sure,” said Fassbender. Gere teased how the tension builds constantly, and every episode introduces a new element or surprise. He added that the new series would “be its own creature” compared to the original French series.

“It’ll hopefully have the same excellent qualities of that one, but also that was probably 10 years ago, and it ran for five years. The world was a different place 10 years ago, and the focus of the world conflicts that it was engaging in is different than the ones today. This is very contemporary. It’s very today, the political world that this [series] deals with.”

The Agency
premieres on

Paramount+ through Showtime this fall.