‘The Sympathizer’: HBO’s Post-Vietnam Series Releases Trailer

HBO has released a trailer for The Sympathizer, its limited series based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

The series won’t debut until 2024, but HBO unveiled the first look at a Warner Bros. Discovery press event unveiling its rebranded Max streaming service (which is dropping the “HBO” from its name and adding a lot of content from Discovery+) and upcoming programming.

The Sympathizer follows a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy (Hoa Xuande) during the final days of the Vietnam War and his resulting exile in the United States. The series is described as part espionage thriller and part cross-culture satire.

Fred Nguyen Khan, Toan Le, Vy Le, Alan Trong, Ky Duyen, Sandra Oh and Robert Downey Jr. also star. Downey, who doubles as an executive producer, plays multiple roles, all of which represent a different part of the American establishment: a congressman from Orange County, a CIA officer and the director of the movie on which the lead character works.

HBO, A24 and Rhombus Media are producing the series in association with Cinetic Media and Moho Film. Park Chan-wook (who also directed three of the show’s seven episodes) and Don McKellar are co-showrunners and executive produce with Downey, Susan Downey and Amanda Burrell for Team Downey, Kim Ly, Rhombus Media’s Niv Fichman, Ron Schmidt, Nguyen and Jisun Back of Moho Film.

Watch the trailer below.