Will Smith, not the American actor but the British Emmy-winning creator of Apple TV+ spy thriller series “Slow Horses,” is exiting that series.
Smith served as writer and executive producer on the Gary Oldman series and was “showrunner in everything but name” since the first season.
The upcoming fifth season, which premieres September 24th, is set to mark his last on the series. After that, he’s handed over the reins to Gaby Chiappe (“The Beast Must Die,” “Their Finest”) for the sixth season which has already completed filming.
Chiappe will then pass on the gig to Ben Vanstone (“A Gentleman in Moscow,” “All Creatures Great and Small”) for the recently ordered seventh season which is aiming to begin filming in September/October.
It follows in the wake of several other high-profile showrunners walking away from series of late, including Matt Owens exiting the live-action “One Piece” after its second season and Neil Druckmann opting out of the third season of HBO’s “The Last of Us”.
“Slow Horses” follows a group of disgraced MI5 agents who are relegated to menial tasks after various failures. Led by Gery Oldman as the sour and sardonic Jackson Lamb, the ensemble includes Jack Lowden as River Cartwright, Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner, Sophie Okonedo as Ingrid Tearney, Jonathan Pryce as David Cartwright and Hugo Weaving as Frank Harkness.
Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Julian Stevens, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Adam Randall, Herron, Gail Mutrux, Douglas Urbanski and Oldman remain onboard as executive producers.
Source: Variety
