More than 60 years after Maxwell Smart first stumbled his way through secret missions, Hollywood is preparing to bring the classic spy comedy back again. Warner Bros. is developing a new feature film based on Get Smart, with John Mulaney reportedly being eyed to take over the role once made famous by Don Adams.
According to CRB, the Get Smart reboot would give the beloved 1960s comedy another big-screen life after Steve Carell previously stepped into Agent 86’s shoes in 2008. With Mulaney now linked to the project, the new version could introduce Maxwell Smart’s famously confident incompetence to another generation while revisiting a television series built around spoofing the spy craze of its era.
Get Smart Reboot Could Make John Mulaney the New Agent 86
According to reports, Warner Bros. is moving forward with the movie, with Seth Grahame-Smith writing the screenplay and Chuck Roven and Andrew Lazar producing. Mulaney has not only become one of the most recognizable stand-up comedians working today but has also expanded into television and film with appearances in The Bear, Poker Face, and the Spider-Verse movies.
The role would place him in a long line of performers connected to Maxwell Smart. Don Adams originated the character when Get Smart premiered in 1965, playing the bumbling Agent 86 opposite Barbara Feldon’s far more capable Agent 99. Steve Carell later took over the part for the 2008 movie, with Anne Hathaway playing Agent 99.
The Original Series Turned the Spy Craze Into Comedy
Mel Brooks and Buck Henry created Get Smart as a spoof of 1960s spy adventures, following the bumbling Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 as they battled KAOS. The series ran for five seasons before ending in 1970. Adams and Feldon later reunited for The Nude Bomb, Get Smart, Again!, and a short-lived 1995 revival before the franchise returned in a 2008 film starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway.
That history gives the new Get Smart reboot plenty of nostalgia to draw from while still leaving room for a different comedic approach. Mulaney’s dry delivery and carefully timed humor would mark another shift from the versions audiences knew through Adams and Carell. For longtime fans, the biggest question may be whether this new version can capture the balance that made the original work: spy-movie spectacle mixed with a hero who often had no idea what he was doing. More than half a century later, Maxwell Smart may be getting another chance to save the world—somehow.
