John Mulaney Is Circling the New “Get Smart” Movie

John Mulaney may be trading stand-up stages for one of television’s most famously chaotic spy jobs. The comedian is being eyed to play Maxwell Smart in a new Warner Bros. reimagining of Get Smart, according to multiple entertainment trade reports.

The project is still at an early stage

The casting is not presented as a completed deal, and the movie remains in early development. Seth Grahame-Smith is writing the screenplay, while Andrew Lazar and Chuck Roven are producing. That makes the news an intriguing first signal rather than a finished package with a release date, director or full cast.

Mulaney’s precise delivery and talent for turning embarrassment into comedy make the potential pairing easy to understand. Maxwell Smart is a confident but accident-prone secret agent whose certainty routinely outruns his competence. Any new version will have to preserve that comic engine while finding a reason for the property to return now.

A spy spoof with a long screen history

Mel Brooks and Buck Henry created the original series, which debuted in 1965. Don Adams starred as Smart opposite Barbara Feldon’s much more capable Agent 99. The sitcom ran for 138 episodes through 1970 and won seven Emmy Awards, including major comedy and acting prizes.

The franchise has already moved between television and film. Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway led the 2008 theatrical adaptation, which earned more than $230 million worldwide. That commercial history helps explain Warner Bros.’ continuing interest, but the reported Mulaney version is being described as a reimagining rather than a simple continuation.

Mulaney brings experience well beyond live comedy. He wrote for Saturday Night Live, co-created the recurring Stefon character with Bill Hader and has supplied voices for projects including Big Mouth and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. For now, the central question is whether talks advance into a signed role—and what kind of spy comedy Warner Bros. ultimately builds around him.