We spy with our little eyes something that has our curiosity and our attention — the first trailer for Netflix's new spy rom-com The Union. Hailing from Giri/Haji writer-director duo Joe Barton and Julian Farino, alongside Designated Survivor creator David Guggenheim, this one sees Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry star as Mike and Roxanne, one-time high school sweethearts brought back together when Roxanne — now a super spy — reunites with Mike, spikes him, and recruits him for a high-stakes mission. As you do! Check out the trailer below;
From its meet-cute opening to its high-octane, car-chasing, rooftop-skipping big finish, The Union's trailer tees up a tantalising genre hybrid driven by Wahlberg and Berry's palpable on-screen chemistry. There's a flirtatious frisson to the duo's dive bar banter — "You can handle your liquor now?" chides Wahlberg's Mike; "I could always handle my liquor" Berry's Roxanne claps back — that looks to carry through as we're thrust into a world of kill lists, training montages, and J. K. Simmons calling the shots as the head of Roxanne's clandestine task force. The spycraft looks solid, Guggenheim and Barton's fish-out-of-water rom-com angle on it feels fresh, and the whole thing honestly looks like it'll be a blast.
Also aboard for some international espionage hijinks here are Mike Colter, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica De Gouw, Alice Lee, and Jackie Earle Haley. And whilst we wait to see whether Wahlberg has indeed been working on his 'tache and will return as Sully for the recently confirmed Uncharted 2, at least now we don't have too long to wait to see the Instant Family star back in action. The Union is set to drop on Netflix on 16 August. Also, Joe Barton steering an espionage thriller centred around a shadowy, London-based intelligence organisation? We live in hope that this may be an elaborate stealth resurrection for the inexplicably cancelled The Lazarus Project.