Why has Phoebe Waller-Bridge left the cast of ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’?
Amazon’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith will have to find a new Mrs. to star in the series.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge has exited the series adaptation of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The Fleabag star is said to have had “creative differences” with series co-star Donald Glover. Glover conceived of the idea for the series before bringing in his Solo co-star.
Both Waller-Bridge and Glover inked big money overall deals with Amazon in recent years. Though Waller-Bridge has left the cast of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, she is still working for Amazon. The series is still tentatively scheduled for 2022.
Creative differences?
Though Phoebe Waller-Bridge has left the project, the split is said to be amicable and there appears to be no bad blood between her and Donald Glover.
Waller-Bridge & Glover first worked together in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. The film has a peculiar distinction of being the most expensive & lowest grossing live-action Star Wars film. Though the movie was generally disliked by critics, the cast, especially Glover, was given significant praise.
In February, It was announced that Glover & Waller-Bridge would collaborate on the reboot of the 2005 action-comedy film Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Glover announced the news in an Instagram video that featured Glover floss-dancing while Waller-Bridge struck a leggy pose similar to Angelina Jolie’s from the original film’s poster.
The initial announcement that the two would collaborate on Mr. and Mrs. Smith was met with a largely positive response on social media. Francesca Sloane, Glover’s production partner on Atlanta, is also involved with the project.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith is still in the writing stage so very little is known about the project at this point. With Waller-Bridge’s exit, the only confirmed cast member is Glover. If the series follows the plot of the source material, Glover and his to be announced Mrs. will play a pair of married assassins who are ordered to kill one another.
Waller-Bridge’s busy schedule
Phoebe Waller-Bridge became a household name following the success of her Amazon show Fleabag, which earned six Emmys. She signed an overall deal worth $20 million to produce new shows for Amazon in 2019.
Waller-Bridge’s exit from the cast of Mr. and Mrs. Smith doesn’t mean she isn’t busy. The multi-hyphenate was brought in to revise dialogue, character development, and add humor to the script of the upcoming James Bond film No Time To Die, apparently at the request of star Daniel Craig.
She is also set to join the cast of the upcoming untitled Indiana Jones film. The film’s production was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which might have created a crunch that forced Waller-Bridge off the Mr. and Mrs. Smith series. The fifth Indiana Jones movie will be helmed by Cop Land & Logan director James Mangold. Harrison Ford will reprise his role as the titular archaeologist.
Glover’s projects
Donald Glover is a busy man as well. He is said to be developing a series called Hive about a Beyoncé-like pop star. Watchmen producer and award-winning playwright Janine Nabers is involved with the project. Hive is also in the writing stage so very little is known about it at this time.
The COVID-19 pandemic also delayed the production of Glover’s Emmy award winning series Atlanta. Glover typically avoids social media, and while he didn’t share any details about the plot of the upcoming third & fourth seasons of the series, he did take to Twitter to share his excitement for the show’s quality.
In a now deleted tweet, Glover asserted that the third & fourth seasons of Atlanta would be among the best television ever produced. He said The Sopranos would be the only show that would come close and compared his latest project to Kanye West’s 2007 album Graduation.
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