John Mulaney is circling the role of Agent Maxwell Smart in Warner Bros. upcoming movie reboot of “Get Smart,” Variety has confirmed.
The project is still in very early stages. Seth Grahame-Smith, who wrote 2025’s “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” is set to pen the screenplay. Producers include Andrew Lazar and Chuck Roven.
Co-creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry debuted the original “Get Smart” TV series in 1965, and it ran for 138 episodes until 1970. Don Adams led the slapstick spy spoof as the brainy but hopelessly incompetent Agent Smart, starring alongside Barbara Feldon as the ever-capable Agent 99. Edward Platt played the Chief of the Control agency. “Get Smart” earned seven Emmy wins during its run, including three acting wins for Adams and three for Outstanding Comedy Series.
“Get Smart” was first adapted for the big screen in 2008, with Steve Carell in the titular role. Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin and Terence Stamp co-starred. Directed by “50 First Dates” filmmaker Peter Segal, the film was a moderate success, opening to $38 million and earning $230 million worldwide by the end of its run against a budget of $80 million (not adjusted for inflation).
Mulaney’s most recent starring role was as the host of Netflix’s anti-talk show “Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney,” which had a 12-episode run in 2025. He has a nine-show New York comedy tour, “Mulaney Takes Manhattan,” set to kick off in January. His next movie role will be in David O. Russell’s sports biopic “Madden” as Trip Hawkins, the founder of the video game giant Electronic Arts.
Mulaney joked during the 2024 Governors Awards that he auditioned for the role of “Young Cop” in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!,” which was a Warner Bros. release. Now it looks like the four-time Emmy winner and WB. are finally coming together.
