The streaming service Max has dropped a trailer for The Sympathizer, the series based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel.
The novel follows the Captain, a communist double agent living in Los Angeles after the Vietnam War. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the book “both chilling and funny, and a worthy addition to the library of first-rate novels about the Vietnam War.”
The series adaptation, which will air on the new streaming service, is directed by Park Chan-wook (Oldboy), and stars Hoa Xuande, Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Sandra Oh, and Robert Downey Jr. The show’s executive producers include Park, Downey, and Nguyen.
The trailer for the show opens with Xuande, playing the Captain, being asked if he ever killed anyone.
“With my own hands?” Xuande says. “No. No, I never killed anyone.”
Xuande later says, “I could be Viet Cong for all you know. A spy. How would you know? I’m not, of course. I love America.”
The trailer also features Downey, playing four different roles, including a California congressman and a movie director. It ends with Downey talking to Xuande, saying, “How about this? You work for me while pretending to work for them. You’re a spy and a counterspy at the same time. You’re a spy, right?”
Xuande looks flustered and stammers, and Downey laughs, saying, “Look at you, all serious. Man, you’d be a terrible spy.”
The Sympathizer is scheduled to premiere in 2024.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
