Michael Fassbender is hard at work right now filming his new political thriller, Kennedy, which is in the works at Netflix. The first-look images of Fassbender behind the scenes of the series surfaced online over the weekend, and while the show does not yet have an official release date, it could arrive on streaming before the end of this year. Fassbender will always be known for his blockbuster role in Magneto in Fox’s X-Men movies, but he’s also a two-time Oscar nominee for his performances in 12 Years a Slave and Steve Jobs. He previously made headlines after taking a four-year hiatus from acting with his return in The Killer, the 2023 David Fincher-directed hitman thriller that was released straight to streaming on Netflix. The film earned 85% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Since his return to acting in 2023 with The Killer, Michael Fassbender has starred in a handful of projects, but perhaps none have been as big of a hit as The Agency. The intense espionage thriller also features some other big stars like Jeffrey Wright and Richard Gere, and despite premiering alongside the first season of Taylor Sheridan’s Landman, it held its own on streaming charts throughout the duration of its first season. Paramount renewed The Agency for a second season while the first was still airing, and although it’s been over a year since a new episode was released,** the series is still holding strong on Paramount+ streaming charts**. The show started filming last year in April, and while there’s still been no news about when Season 2 will be released, all signs point to it coming out before the end of this year.
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
The official synopsis for The Agency, which was written and created for TV by** John-Henry** and Jez Butterworth, reads as follows: “A covert CIA agent is ordered to abandon his undercover life and return to his station; when the love he left behind reappears, romance reignites.”
*The Agency *is based on the novel Le Bureau des Legendes by Eric Rochant, and it’s also a remake of the French TV show inspired by the novel that ran for five seasons between 2015 and 2020. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that The Agency could also run for five seasons, it is an indicator that the creative team has five seasons’ worth of material to pull from. The series is the perfect blend of Jason Bourne and Mindhunter.
Check out the first season of* The Agency* on Paramount+ and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of Season 2.
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Paramount+ with Showtime