Even though it was a perfectly serviceable and highly successful action-packed blockbuster that scored over half a billion dollars at the box office, the lasting legacy of 2005’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith is the tabloid fervor surrounding stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
To be fair, the speculation proved to be right on the money when the former ended up splitting from then-wife Jennifer Aniston and eventually getting hitched to his co-star and raising a family together, but Prime Video will be hoping the specter of its A-list past doesn’t haunt the upcoming episodic reboot, which has faced some troubles of its own.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith has been trying to make its way to the small screen for 15 years, with Martin Henderson and Jordana Brewster starring in a 2007 pilot that didn’t get ordered to series, with Donald Glover and Phoebe Waller-Bridge spearheading the streaming version when it was first announced.
However, the Fleabag creator dropped out to be replaced by Maya Erskine, with the first footage arriving today to confirm a November release window.
Glover’s name always tends to be a mark of quality, so it’ll be interesting to see if Mr. & Mrs. Smith keeps his hot streak alive, especially when it’s got a mountain to climb in order to erase memories of its predecessor as the definitive version of the story.
That being said, do we really need yet another do-over of a well-known brand taking up airtime on a major platform? Arguably not, but we’d be happy to eat those words should the reboot prove to be worth the time and investments its taken.