James Wan Sends Simu Liu 5 Minutes Into the Future in New Peacock Series

Tony Maglio
·2 min read
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Simu Liu is going back to the future. Well, like, five minutes into the future.

Peacock has given a straight-to-series order for an untitled espionage series starring Liu, in which the “Barbie” actor will play first-generation-American intelligence analyst Alexander Hale. He realizes his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears.

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James Wan is among the executive producers on the series, which was written and created by Thomas Brandon (“Legacies”). Other EPs on the project include Michael Clear and Rob Hackett from Wan’s Atomic Monster. Danielle Bozzone will oversee the project for the production company, which recently merged with Jason Blum’s Blumhouse.

Wan/Atomic Monster and UCP/Peacock are already collaborating on a contemporary (which is to say, not five minutes into the future) horror thriller now titled “Teacup.” Ian McCulloch is writing that one, and executive producing alongside Wan.

The Liu project is one of four new series Peacock ordered Wednesday. Others include a limited scripted drama centered on serial killer John Wayne Gacy; a limited-series suburban thriller from Megan Gallagher, and a Steph Curry-starring comedy from David Caspe that reunites him with “Happy Endings” star Adam Pally.

Patrick MacManus (“Dr. Death,” “The Girl From Plainville”) created Gacy drama “Devil in Disguise,” which is executive produced by Littleton Road Prods., Kelly Funke, NBC News Studios, Noah Oppenheim and Liz Cole.

Gallagher’s “All Her Fault,” an adaptation of Andrea Mara’s book of the same name, is executive produced by Gareth Neame, Nigel Marchant and Joanna Strevens for Carnival. It will scare the hell out of all of us parents: “In Chicago, Marissa Irvine arrives at 14 Arthur Avenue, expecting to pick up her young son Milo from his first playdate with a boy at his new school. But the woman who answers the door isn’t a mother she recognizes. She isn’t the nanny. She doesn’t have Milo. And so begins every parent’s worst nightmare.”

“Mr. Throwback,” the Caspe mockumentary, will be executive produced by Curry, Pally, and brothers/writers Matthew Libman and Daniel Libman. It follows Curry as an out-of-luck memorabilia dealer who looks for redemption by reuniting with his sixth-grade teammate, NBA legend Steph Curry.

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