Emmy winner Hannah Waddingham & Oscar winner Octavia Spencer are set to lead an upcoming action-adventure series for Prime Video based on an original idea from Tessa Coates. The series hails from Skydance Television, which produced the popular Reacher television adaptation. In film, Skydance is behind the more recent Mission: Impossible films in addition to Top Gun: Maverick.
What to know about Spencer & Waddingham’s new show
Consisting of eight episodes, the project is based on an original idea from Coates. The story centers on Judith (Waddingham) and Debbie (Spencer). They’re two best friends who know everything about each other. Except the fact that Judith has a whole other double life, which Debbie knows nothing about.
It turns out that Judith is a highly trained assassin. But When a hit goes wrong, Judith and Debbie have to go on the run together and do the work of repairing their broken friendship. This is all while being targeted by a mysterious enemy who wants them dead.
“I was in as soon as I heard Tessa’s stunning pitch. To be able to dive into a role like Debbie is rare, and working with Hannah to bring this unique friendship to life is a dream,” Spencer shared in a statement. “We knew we had something special with Skydance and Double Dream, and now that we have a home at Amazon, our vision has become a reality.”
“I’m not gonna lie, a few expletives fell out of my face at the prospect of working with the magnificent Ms. Spencer, Tessa Coates’ hugely energetic, exhilarating script, Skydance and Double Dream,” added Waddingham. “To then see the immediate excited response from a mighty beast like Amazon! It’s all just incredibly exciting, and I can’t wait to get our collective teeth into it!”
“We were blown away by this one-of-a-kind comedy. Tessa’s pitch delivered it all—fantastically original characters, a great story, the amazing creative talents of Octavia and Hannah and so much fun,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios. “We are over the moon to work with them all plus the dream teams at Skydance, Double Dream, and Orit Entertainment.”
“The process of developing this series has been one of the most joyous of our careers, starting with the inimitable Tessa Coates. Tessa’s voice and vision lured our incredible producers, Barbara and Andy Muschietti, who were instrumental in developing the project, as well as the dream casting of Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham,” noted Skydance Television president Matt Thunell. “We are so proud to be making this show with Amazon; this team has created a series that will make audiences around the world laugh, cry, and cheer.”
Coates will executive produce the series alongside Spencer, Brian Clisham, and Stephanie Kluft for Orit Entertainment; Waddingham; Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, and Irene Yeung for Double Dream; and David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Matt Thunell for Skydance Television. Mark Mikutowicz and Blair Bigelow developed the project for Skydance.
The project marks another Skydance Television project with Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video. In addition to Reacher and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, there’s also the upcoming Cross.
