Peacock is bringing a new spy story with Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson as the leads. The show is called PONIES. The official release date is Thursday, January 15, 2026. All eight episodes of this Cold War thriller will be available that day on the streaming service. A new trailer shows the two actresses as secretaries who must become spies to find out the truth about their husbands’ deaths.
What Is The Show PONIES About?
The series is set in Moscow in 1977. The title “PONIES” is spy slang for “persons of no interest“. It refers to two women, Bea and Twila, who work as low-profile secretaries at the American Embassy. Their lives change completely when their husbands, who were CIA operatives, are killed in a mysterious plane crash in the USSR.
To uncover the conspiracy behind their husbands’ deaths, Bea and Twila agree to work for the CIA. They use their perceived invisibility as an advantage. As Twila points out in the trailer, “We’re women, people only look at us if they want to have sex with us or marry us, and that’s it. No one would ever suspect us of anything”.
Their personalities are very different. Bea, played by Emilia Clarke, is described as an over-educated, Russian-speaking child of Soviet immigrants who is more reserved. Clarke joked about her character, saying, “When you first meet Bea, she went to Wellesley, she studied Russian, she married her childhood sweetheart. She’s on the path to be perfect wife, perfect mother, perfect woman. I mean, I can’t relate at all”.
Twila, played by Haley Lu Richardson, is her opposite: a fearless and abrasive small-town girl. Richardson described her as “loud, and a lot, and uninhibited”. Clarke summarized their dynamic: “Everything that Bea isn’t, Twila is. And everything that Twila isn’t, Bea is”.
Full Cast List and Character Details
The series features a strong supporting cast alongside the two leads.
- Emilia Clarke plays Bea. Clarke also serves as an executive producer on the series.
- Haley Lu Richardson plays Twila.
- Adrian Lester (The Sandman) plays Dane, the precise and secretive head of the CIA’s Moscow station.
- Artjom Gilz (Tár) plays Andrei, a dangerous and alluring KGB officer.
- Nicholas Podany plays Ray, an earnest CIA analyst who is underestimated by those around him.
- Petro Ninovskyi plays Sasha, a technician for Soviet technology with a fondness for American culture.
- Vic Michaelis plays Cheryl, the office manager and a queen bee among the embassy wives.
Behind-the-Scenes Creative Team
PONIES was co-created by David Iserson (New Girl, Mr. Robot) and Susanna Fogel (The Flight Attendant). Iserson is the showrunner, and Fogel directed the series. They both also serve as executive producers and writers.
Mike Daniels (Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist) is a co-showrunner and executive producer. Jessica Rhoades (Black Mirror, Station Eleven) is also an executive producer. The series is produced by Universal Television.
Filming for the show took place in Budapest, Hungary, which stood in for 1970s Moscow. Production started in February 2025.
Trailer Reveals Action and Spy Missions
The first trailer for the show sets a tense and exciting tone. It begins with Bea and Twila meeting and realizing they both know their husbands’ real jobs. After learning about the plane crash, they are recruited by the CIA but are initially disappointed to be given secretarial work.
The action quickly escalates. The trailer shows car chases, glitzy parties, and dangerous spy craft. In one scene, Twila sets a bar on fire, leading to a funny argument between the two about fire safety. Their mission brings them dangerously close to high-level KGB targets.
Global Streaming Information
PONIES is a Peacock Original series. It will be available to stream only on the Peacock platform starting January 15, 2026. All eight episodes, each about an hour long, are expected to be released at once.
The show will be available to Peacock subscribers in the United States. For international audiences, release plans on other platforms or networks have not been announced yet. Typically, Peacock Originals become available on the Sky platform in the United Kingdom and on Stan in Australia, but this has not been confirmed for PONIES.
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