We all remember Matthew Fox from Lost and/or Party of Five, right? He has gotten work since then, of course, but no TV shows were as big as those for him. His last movie appearance was 2015’s Bone Tomahawk. From 2014 to 2021, Fox took a break from acting to spend time with his family. Since his return, his latest was a 2023 Australian gig. But now, it looks like he is ready to go to work on being THE ASSASSIN.
The work, slated for WBD’s streaming service Max, is being written and produced by John Glenn, whose latest show onscreen has been CBS’s SEAL Team. THE ASSASSIN is based on the book series by British novelist Tom Wood and focuses on a merciless assassin known only as Victor (Fox’s role), who after being betrayed by an anonymous client, finds himself hunted across the globe by multiple enemies, including relentless CIA operatives and a contract killer equally as deadly. To stay alive, Victor must uncover the identity of his betrayer while grappling with a buried spark of humanity that begins to resurface within him and might just be the greatest threat to his survival.
A total of eleven works by Wood have been written to date so, if Fox isn’t too old, he could play this character for a while. He could appear sort of like J. K. Rowling’s CORMORAN STRIKE titles already on Max. But this Victor story harkens me back to The Executioner paperbacks of old, a continuing spin of tales of espionage and contracted killings that lead a character through all sorts of intrigue and revelations. I don’t think this story is really that action-packed but more of a character piece set in an assassin’s world. But it is all too soon to say really.
In truth, out of all the works in some sort of development stage for HBO/Max, we singled out this one because it has Matthew Fox as its lead. He hasn’t been on the screen enough, and possibly with THE ASSASSIN he will get that opportunity. Who knows, in all is said and done it just might get slapped with an “HBO Original” banner across the top of it. We will keep you posted and look for a bigger Development Slate piece coming soon.
