John Mulaney will reportedly Get Smart! for Warner Bros.

The new reimagining revives the classic comedy franchise created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry.

By Jarrod Jones  |  September 9, 2026 | 9:43am
Photo: Alberto Rodriguez/Variety/Getty Images
Film News John Mulaney
John Mulaney will reportedly Get Smart! for Warner Bros.

There are a handful of rules for successfully casting Don Adams’ Maxwell Smart in any Get Smart! reboot. First, he looks good in a suit. Second, he boasts a mastery of snappy patter, which dovetails into the third rule: His comic timing must be impeccable. Fail to cast an actor with a solid grip on these three things, and the whole production goes kablooey before the prop guys can make their first shoe phone. Luckily, per Deadline, Warner Bros. appears to be talking with Emmy Award-winning comedian and Wrigley Field seller-outer John Mulaney for the role of Agent 86 in its latest “reimagining” of the original Mel Brooks and Buck Henry spy series. 

Details on the project are very much on the QT (in fact, Mulaney has yet to sign on), though Deadline reports that the screenplay (for what we presume is a film, not a new TV series) is being written by Seth Grahame-Smith (Now You See Me: Now You Don’t; The Lego Batman Movie; Pride & Prejudice & Zombies) and produced by Chuck Roven and Andrew Lazar, both of whom also produced the 2008 film remake. Next will come an equally critical casting call for Agent 99 (played by Barbara Feldon in the original series and Anne Hathaway in the 2008 Steve Carrell film reboot) and the Chief (Edward Platt and Alan Arkin, respectively), who make up the terrific comedic trifecta of Get Smart! 

For those out of the loop who wish to Smarten up their TV history (the original series is, after all, over sixty years old), we recommend watching this handy-dandy primer, which offers the straight dope on the “counterintelligence” agency CONTROL and its evil counterpart KAOS. Better than coffee.

 
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