The White Lotus’ Meghann Fahy trades resorts for spycraft in a new thriller series
After Sirens, The White Lotus’ Meghann Fahy has been cast in a new thriller — but it’s what her character gets up to that’ll raise your eyebrows.
Here's a bit of casting news for anyone tracking the rise of Meghann Fahy, fresh off her work in The White Lotus and that turn in Sirens (the Netflix limited series where she was actually really good as Devon DeWitt). She's now taking on something quite different: trading in Sicily for espionage in a new thriller series called Smokeshow.
This one's still early doors, but Fahy's landed herself the lead role—she'll be playing a covert operative called Rory, who gets tangled up with her mark, Nolan, who's apparently both charming and excruciatingly earnest. The show's being described as a bit of a mash-up: part thriller, part dark romcom. (If you're getting Killing Eve meets rom-com vibes, you're not alone.) The central hook is Rory having to choose between sticking with her life as a spy or chucking it all for the chance at freedom, and presumably, a complicated romance.
Smokeshow, adapted from an upcoming novel by Catriona Stewart, will see Fahy as a secret agent forced to choose between her old life and a shot at breaking free, in a series mixing thriller and dark romantic comedy elements.
Apparently there was quite a scuffle behind the scenes to get this thing made, with SK Global and David E. Kelley Productions eventually winning the rights after a proper bidding war. Now the team is getting set to shop Smokeshow to networks and streamers in the next few weeks—so, as per the industry trend, nobody knows yet where we'll be able to watch it and there's no air date on the books yet either.
Bit of background on the source material: the show's adapted from a not-yet-published novel by Catriona Stewart. She's a communications strategist from San Francisco, with over a decade of experience coaching Californian politicos. Random House will release her debut novel in the US next summer—so the series is out ahead of the book, which is not that common when you think about it.
Pulling the novel into telly is Kirstie Swain, who's screenwriter and also executive producer on the series. Fahy herself is listed as a producer alongside the usual David E. Kelley team (that's David E. Kelley, Matthew Tinker, Shelby Leshine), with SK Global's head of TV, Chloe Dan, and Trish Esselen running point for the studio.
Smokeshow is adapted for the screen by Kirstie Swain, with Fahy set to produce as well as star.
There's no word yet on the rest of the cast—so far, only Fahy's role as Rory is confirmed. If you're curious what else she's got coming up, she's been busy: you'll also see her soon in The Good Daughter for Peacock, where she stars opposite Rose Byrne, plus an Amazon MGM romantic comedy called You Deserve Each Other with Penn Badgley.