Michael Fassbender Starring in Spy Series ‘The Department’

Clooney is directing the new TV series, which adapts hit French espionage drama ‘The Bureau’, focusing on a spy struggling with life at home after a mission.

Michael Fassbender as an assassin in 'The Killer.'

Preview:

Michael Fassbender will play a troubled spy in ‘The Department’.
George Clooney is directing the new series.
It adapts a hit French show.

After taking a couple of years away from acting, Michael Fassbender returned to our screens last year with the one-two punch of Taika Waititi’s based-on-truth comedy ‘Next Goal Wins’ and David Fincher’s darkly comic thriller ‘The Killer’.

Yet while he has some new movies in the works, it appears Fassbender is ready to return to TV for the first time in nearly two decades. He’s in talks to star in new spy series ‘The Department’.

And the other big name behind the series? George Clooney.

What’s the story of ‘The Department’?

According to Variety, Fassbender is closing in on the lead role in the series, which would adapt Eric Rochant’s series ‘The Bureau’.

The original show was a big hit when it aired in France between 2015 and 2020.

It starred Matthieu Kassovitz as Guillaume Debailly — alias Paul Lefebvre, alias Malotru — a member of a clandestine branch of the French Secret Services (DGSE) who returns to his home base after a six-year mission in Damascus.

As he struggles to let go of his false identity and illicit affair with a Syrian woman, he finds himself playing a double game between the DGSE and the CIA. Storylines explored the psychology of secret agents, inclusion of geopolitical issues that resonated with current events and international locations.

Who is making the new series?

Director George Clooney on the set of his film 'The Boys in the Boat,' an Amazon MGM Studios film.

With Clooney in the director’s chair, the new series was adapted by Rochant from his original show, so we can expect an update that touches on today’s thorny world politics.

The director’s occasional producing partner Grant Heslov is also attached to the series, which comes from their Smokehouse Pictures alongside MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios.

Shooting is scheduled for this spring in London.

Who else is in ‘The Department’?

There’s no official casting for the show yet –– assuming Fassbender makes a deal, the rest of the ensemble will be built around him. And no one is saying whether Clooney will step in front of the camera; he didn’t show up on screen in his most recent movie, fact-based historical sports drama, ‘The Boys in the Boat’.

When will ‘The Department’ be on screens?

Showtime has handed the show a straight-to-series order, but given that spring start, we wouldn’t expect it on screen much before early next year.

What’s next for Fassbender?

Michael Fassbender has a couple of projects we’re waiting to see. Action comedy sequel ‘Kung Fury 2’ was shot a few years ago but still hasn’t made it to screens. And he’s also got ‘Kneecap’, the story of a real-life Irish rap group, headed our way later this year.