Steven Prusakowski
Details of the upcoming Peacock science fiction espionage thriller (aka spy-fi) series, The Copenhagen Test, where you never quite know who is watching who, were “leaked” at this year’s New York Comic Con. The series promises loads of action and deception with Simu Liu as Alexander Hale a spy who works for a top secret agency called The Orphanage. Hale is hacked and turned into an unwitting human espionage device where the hacker can see and hear whatever he does, in a unique blend of The Truman Show’s voyeuristic dread and Cold War paranoia. A plot that feels quite relevant in our surveillance-saturated world.
At New York Comic Con, I spoke with series executive producer and star Simu Liu (Barbie, Marvel’s Shang-Chi, The Legend of The Ten Rings) and EPs/showrunners Thomas Brandon and Jennifer Yale. Liu, didn’t just act, he immersed himself in the creative process. “It’s definitely such a gift anytime you get to work with showrunners that approach all things like character, story, and production design, with the level of care that these two do,” shared Liu. “And also as co-executive producers, it allowed me to exercise my own my own creative vision. Coming into this I had two images in my mind that I was trying to avoid. The vanity producer who is kind of completely hands off and is really just kind of putting a stamp on something for ego. And then in the other, being a creative tyrant and everything has to be my way because I’m a producer and I’m throwing the rank around.”
“I just wanted to find that perfect balance in the middle where I was additive. I think that easily. among many other things, was one of the most fulfilling parts of just this project, getting to have a degree of control that’s beyond and that went beyond just my character – getting to make decisions in concert with these two about everything from a title sequence to screenplay notes to pre-production and prep and post-production.”
Brandon praised Liu’s commitment, “I know Jen and I felt the same way. We were really surprised because he wanted to come visit us on the first day of the writers room… He came in. He stayed a little bit longer than most actors… And then he goes, what time are we starting tomorrow? We’re like, what do you mean? And the next day and the next day and he did the first two weeks with us. At some point it felt like we had another writer and we’re just all arguing with each other and like debating and finding the show and like really contributing in an interesting way.”
The show’s uniqueness lies in its retro-futuristic aesthetic and narrative innovation. Brandon explained: “That was exactly The Truman Show element… It’s not just spy that we’ve seen before, but spy with a twist and spy that had something to say about where we are today… It took us back to incredibly like old school techniques. It just felt very tactile and it felt very kinetic.”
“It harkened back to that kind of like timeless cold war paranoia.” Yale added, “We spent a lot of time making sure that a lot of our tech in the upstairs, which is the orphanage that is the control room… was built in an analog way where there’s even a landline with a corded phone. You can’t feel futuristic or space age. Cause paper’s unhackable.”
Liu brought lessons from Shang-Chi, “One of the most important things that I learned was that action sequences that don’t serve story are just people fighting on screen. And one of the things that I felt like were really successful about our movie was that in every fight scene, you were actually watching something else.” He continued, “There are episodes of our show with no fight scenes and those are some of my favorites.” The Copenhagen Test isn’t just a thriller, it’s a mirror to our times, crafted excessive care. As Brandon noted, “It harkens back to that timeless cold war paranoia and a little bit of the John le Carré novels that I loved as a teenager. Taking it a step forward and also taking us back to an era that feels timeless and comfortable.”
The Copenhagen Test, which also stars Melissa Barrera, premieres on Peacock on December 27, 2025. You can watch the heart racing trailer below.
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