Solo co-stars and founding members of a mutual admiration society Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Donald Glover were supposed to reunite for a television remake of Mr. & Mrs. Smith which is, of course, a gossip hall of fame film as it brought us Brangelina. Glover had the idea of reimagining the film for television (by way of Amazon, where he and PWB each have production deals), and Waller-Bridge was to play the Mrs. Smith to his Mr. Smith. But, well, the creative marriage has fallen apart, and unlike in the movie, they were not able to reconcile. Waller-Bridge has left the project and her role will be recast. Glover remains on as star and executive producer, and the showrunner, Atlanta veteran Francesca Sloane, is also still in place. The show is in the scripting stage now and is still on track for a 2022 premiere.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, it was an amicable split over differing creative visions for the project. That is not entirely surprising, Glover and Waller-Bridge are both creatives with strong visions and distinctive voices. When this project was first announced, Lainey pointed out that Glover and Waller-Bridge are the type to “work on it until they’re feeling it”, but that there is also some natural professional competition, given that they are both A-list creators. Ideally, that would result in an unforgettable collaboration, but sometimes, you just can’t force that chemistry. If they’re not meshing, they’re not meshing. And it’s not like Waller-Bridge is lacking things to do. She’s currently filming Indiana Jones 5 and she has her own production deal with Amazon to satisfy. I would have loved to see Glover and Waller-Bridge together in a new take on Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but I’m still interested to see both what Glover and his team do with Smith, and what Waller-Bridge does next. Just not Indiana Jones 5. I can’t get my heart broken like that again.
