Arnold Schwarzenegger starring in his first scripted TV series
Monica Barbaro, Jay Baruchel and Arnold Schwarzenegger star in the new Netflix espionage comedy premiering May 25. Credit: Netflix / Amanda Matlovich
He'll be back … to back to back: Arnold Schwarzenegger's first scripted TV series, a Netflix espionage action-comedy announced in 2020, will premiere on May 25, the streaming service announced Monday.
“Everywhere I go, people ask me when I’m going to do another big action comedy like [James Cameron's 1994] 'True Lies.' Well, here it is," the actor and former California governor and bodybuilder, 75, said in a statement. The eight-episode, hourlong series titled after a bawdy military acronym for something messed up "beyond all repair" will "kick your [butt] and make you laugh," he promised, "and not just for two hours. You get a whole season."
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He'll be back … to back to back: Arnold Schwarzenegger's first scripted TV series, a Netflix espionage action-comedy announced in 2020, will premiere on May 25, the streaming service announced Monday.
“Everywhere I go, people ask me when I’m going to do another big action comedy like [James Cameron's 1994] 'True Lies.' Well, here it is," the actor and former California governor and bodybuilder, 75, said in a statement. The eight-episode, hourlong series titled after a bawdy military acronym for something messed up "beyond all repair" will "kick your [butt] and make you laugh," he promised, "and not just for two hours. You get a whole season."
Schwarzenegger — who played a character role in an episode of "Two and a Half Men" in 2015 and has done voice-overs for animated TV series — plays a CIA operative on the verge of retirement who discovers a family secret and returns to the field for one last job, with personal dynamics playing out against a global backdrop, Netflix said.
The 23-second teaser trailer shows Schwarzenegger's character lighting up a cigar, followed by shots of him racing along city streets on a motorcycle and in a black sports car, exclaiming to himself, "I'm back, baby!" Wearing glasses, he crouches behind some crates and fires a gun at someone off-screen. And in a sailboat marina, a character played by stand-up comedian Fortune Feimster casually gives him a backhanded punch between his legs and tells the hulking spy, now doubled over in pain, "That's what you get for being sentimental!"
The cast also includes Monica Barbaro (Lt. Natasha "Phoenix" Trace in "Top Gun: Maverick"), Gabriel Luna (2019's "Terminator: Dark Fate"), Jay Baruchel ("The Moodys," star of the "How to Train Your Dragon" animated franchise), Andy Buckley ("The Office," "Avenue 5"), Aparna Brielle ("A.P. Bio"), Milan Carter, Travis Van Winkle, Fabiana Udenio and Barbara Eve Harris.
Series creator Nick Santora, 52 — a Hewlett High School Alumni Hall of Famer whose other credits as creator-showrunner include CBS' "Scorpion" and Amazon Prime Video's "Reacher" — said in a separate statement that the new show "is, by far, the most surreal project of my career. I grew up watching Arnold Schwarzenegger films — I'd hit my dad up for a few bucks so I could race to the movies and see the biggest star in the world on the big screen — so creating the first scripted television project for Arnold is unbelievably exciting for me."
He added, "The thing I always marveled at was how Schwarzenegger could be funny while still" being a formidable action star, and quipping "I'd love to elaborate with more details, but, sorry, it's classified."