Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Donald Glover Aren’t Teaming Up After All
Alas, two of the most lauded names in television won’t be collaborating any time soon. On Tuesday, the Hollywood Reporter announced that Phoebe Waller-Bridge will no longer create and star opposite Donald Glover in their planned adaptation of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the 2005 film starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt as married assassins assigned to kill each other. Waller-Bridge apparently “had a different creative vision for the series” than Glover, though according to anonymous sources, it was an “amicable” split and the pair “remains friends.”
The series is still going forward, and even still set for its planned release date in 2022. Glover is now on the hunt for a new co-creator and costar. Still, Waller-Bridge and Glover’s fanbases are devastated. The Emmy-winning creators and stars of Fleabag and Atlanta, respectively, proved a notably magnetic pairing in Solo: A Star Wars Story (he was Lando Calrissian, she voiced his opinionated droid), and anticipation has been high since news of their creative pairing broke seven months ago. Reactions to its cancellation on Twitter include “okay I hate my life,” “my life has lost all purpose,” and “NOTHING TO LIVE FOR.”
The development does, however, come with a bit of good news: Glover is apparently in postproduction on Atlanta’s third season, and production of its fourth is already underway. The third is set for a release in the first half of 2022, and the fourth could potentially follow just months after. Also in the works: an upcoming Amazon series about a “Beyoncé-like figure” that will reportedly involve budding TV writer Malia Obama.
Waller-Bridge is also staying booked and busy, even without what had been set to be the first major project to result from her deal with Amazon Studios. She’s currently filming Indiana Jones 5 alongside Antonio Banderas and Harrison Ford, which is set for a July 2022 release, and in pre-production of Screenshot, a TV series about comedy writers created by couple Ed Sinclair and Olivia Colman. She’s also set to return to Killing Eve for its fourth and final season as executive producer (with hopes of becoming a victim of Jodie Comer’s Villanelle).
Fortunately, the release date of another of Waller-Bridge’s projects is just around the corner: She contributed to the script of No Time to Die, which is set for an October release after numerous pandemic-related delays. The film marks Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond, and the granting of his wish: He specifically requested Waller-Bridge’s involvement, citing her “off-beat style of writing” and sense of humor.
