Get ready for one of the best spy series of the decade

I have already described The office — the spy series is considered France’s answer to The homeland — as one of my favorite spy dramas of all time. Even though an American remake titled The Agency is in the works, I am super excited rather than skeptical about the upcoming adaptation. However, I will now go even further and declare that I actually think The Agency actually has a chance to stand alongside the best spy dramas of the last decade when it premieres on Paramount+ With Showtime later this year.

For this reason, I have immense hopes for this new series.

Let’s start with the cast. First, we have Michael Fassbender in the lead role of The Martian – he is described as “a covert CIA agent who must give up his undercover life and return to London Station. When the love he left behind resurfaces, romance reignites. His career, his true identity and his mission come into conflict with his heart, plunging them both into a deadly game of international intrigue and espionage.” This is essentially a modified version of the character Malotru from the original series (known in France as Le Bureau des Légendes).

And from then on the cast gets stronger and stronger.

Richard Gere is also on board The Agencyin one of the few regular television roles of his entire career. He plays a character named Bosky, whose official character description describes him as “the London station chief with a checkered past after eight years of service as an undercover cop”.

Jeffrey Wright will also star in the role of Henry, the CIA operations officer and mentor to Fassbender’s Martian. Chris McCarthy, co-CEO of Paramount Global, released separate statements about Gere and Wright’s involvement in the series, raving of the former that Gere is “in a class of his own… because of his extraordinary ability to bring depth and authenticity to every role he plays.”

McCarthy adds that Wright, meanwhile, “doesn’t just portray characters – he fully embodies them, imbuing each role with raw emotional power and profound psychological insight.”

Why else am I so excited about the series? The Agency was written by brothers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (who also co-wrote the underrated Tom Cruise film Edge of Tomorrow), and Fassbender is the producer of the series along with George Clooney. But you don’t have to take my word for it; in 2022, I have hired several former intelligence officers for The guardand almost every single one listed The office as one of the best spy series of all time.