‘The Sympathizer’ Gets New Trailer, Premiere Date on HBO

HBO has released a new trailer and set a premiere date for The Sympathizer — a date will allow the show to just make it under the wire for Emmy eligibility.

The limited series, based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, is part spy thriller and part satire. It follows the Captain (Hoa Xuande), a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy through the final days of the Vietnam War and in his new life as a refugee in Los Angeles, where he learns that his spying days aren’t over. It’s scheduled to premiere April 14, which would put its seventh and last episode on May 26, a few days before the eligibility window for the 2024 Emmys closes.

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Ordered to series in July 2021, The Sympathizer is a co-production of HBO, A24 and Rhombus Media, in association with Moho Film and Cinetic Media. Don McKellar (Sensitive Skin, Last Night) and Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) serve as co-showrunners; Park also directed the first three episodes.

In addition to Xuande, the show’s cast also includes Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Phanxine, Vy Le, Ky Duyen, Kieu Chinh, Duy Nguyen, Alan Trong, Sandra Oh and Robert Downey Jr., who plays several supporting roles and is also an executive producer.

The new trailer updates a previous teaser with an expanded look at Oh’s character and an emphasis on the dual life the Captain must lead in his new home.

Along with Park, McKellar and Downey, the executive producers for The Sympathizer are A24; Susan Downey and Amanda Burrell for Team Downey; Niv Fichman for Rhombus Media; and Kim Ly, Ron Schmidt, Nguyen and Moho Film’s Jisun Back. Fernando Meirelles and Marc Munden also direct. Mark Richard, Naomi Iizuka, Maegan Houang, Anchuli Felicia King and Tea Ho are writers on the series.

Watch the trailer below.

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