John Mulaney may be heading into spy-comedy territory at Warner Bros.
The four-time Emmy winner is eyeing the role of Agent Maxwell Smart in the studio’s upcoming reimagining of Get Smart, the Mel Brooks and Buck Henry-created property centered on the overly confident, frequently inept secret agent also known as Agent 86. The project is still early in development, with Seth Grahame-Smith writing the screenplay. Chuck Roven and Andrew Lazar are producing.
The potential casting would put Mulaney in the role first made famous by Don Adams, who starred in the original television series as Maxwell Smart opposite Barbara Feldon as Agent 99 and Edward Platt as the Chief. In the series, the agents worked for Control, a secret U.S. government counterintelligence agency locked in an ongoing fight with the evil organization Kaos.
The original Get Smart ran for 138 episodes from 1965 to 1970. Its first four seasons aired on NBC, while its final season aired on CBS. The James Bond spoof won seven Emmys, including two for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Part of the show’s identity was its opening sequence, which followed Smart as he passed through a string of locked barriers before reaching a phone booth, dialing a number and dropping into Control headquarters. The series established Smart as an agent who often managed to outmaneuver Kaos despite his own incompetence.
A franchise with multiple screen lives
Get Smart has been revisited several times since the original series ended. A 1980 feature film, The Nude Bomb, was made without Brooks and Henry. In 1989, the made-for-TV sequel Get Smart, Again! brought back Adams and Feldon.
A revival series followed in early 1995, airing on Fox for seven episodes. That version starred Adams, Feldon, Andy Dick, Heather Morgan and Elaine Hendrix.
Warner Bros. later brought the property to the big screen in 2008 with a feature adaptation produced by Roven and Lazar. That film starred Steve Carell as Smart, Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, Alan Arkin as the Chief and Dwayne Johnson as Agent 23. Programmed as a summer tentpole, it opened to $38.6 million stateside and went on to make $130.3 million domestically and $230.6 million worldwide.
Mulaney’s busy stretch
Mulaney is a Critics Choice- and WGA Award-winning writer, comedian and actor. This summer, he became the first comedian ever to headline Wrigley Field, ultimately selling out the ballpark.
He also recently announced Mulaney Takes Manhattan, a nine-show New York City run set for January 7-15. The engagement will take him to nine venues over nine nights, ranging from Comedy Cellar and Blue Note to Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall, with a finale planned for Madison Square Garden. The shows are part of his latest stand-up tour, John Mulaney: Mister Whatever.
On television, Mulaney has hosted Saturday Night Live six times. He will next appear in Amazon MGM Studios’ upcoming David O. Russell feature Madden, which stars Nicolas Cage as the famed football coach and NFL commentator.
Mulaney’s Emmy wins include Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special in 2025 for SNL: 50th Anniversary, Writing for a Variety Special in 2023 for John Mulaney: Baby J, Writing for a Variety Special in 2018 for John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City Hall, and Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics in 2011 for SNL.
Grahame-Smith, who is writing the new Get Smart screenplay, has a story credit on Warner Bros.’ Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which amassed more than $452 million worldwide. He also wrote Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, which grossed close to $247 million at the global box office, and The Lego Batman Movie, which minted more than $312 million worldwide.
Grahame-Smith is represented by WME and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Mulaney is represented by WME and Shreck Rose Dapello.
For now, the new Get Smart remains in its early stages, with Mulaney eyeing the central role and Grahame-Smith attached to script the Warner Bros. reimagining.