''Condor'' is an American thriller television series based on the novel '' Six Days of the Condor'' by

James Grady James Grady may refer to: * James Grady (footballer) (born 1971), Scottish footballer * James Grady (author) (born 1949), American writer and investigative journalist {{hndis, Grady, James ...

and its 1975 film adaptation '' Three Days of the Condor'' written by

Lorenzo Semple Jr. Lorenzo Elliott Semple III (March 27, 1923March 28, 2014) was an American screenwriter and sometime playwright, best known for his work on the campy television series '' Batman'', who also received writing credit on the political/espionage fil ...

and David Rayfiel. The series stars

Max Irons Maximilian Paul Diarmuid Irons (born 17 October 1985) is an English-Irish actor and model. He is known for his roles in films such as ''Red Riding Hood'' (2011), '' The White Queen'' (2013), '' The Host'' (2013), '' Woman in Gold'' (2014), ''Th ...

. The series was created by Todd Katzberg,

Jason Smilovic Jason Smilovic is an American writer and executive producer, as well as the creator of the television series ''Karen Sisco'', ''Kidnapped'', '' My Own Worst Enemy'', and ''Condor''. He also wrote the film ''Lucky Number Slevin''. Smilovic gradua ...

, and Ken Robinson and premiered on June 6, 2018 on Audience. In July 2018, the series had been renewed for a second season, although in January 2020, Audience announced it would be ending operations in its current format. The second season, already filmed at the time of the announcement, premiered on June 9, 2020, on

C More C More Entertainment AB is a pay television company that previously operated as Canal+. It targets Nordic countries and has a separate channel in Sweden (C More Film). The main competitors of C More Entertainment are Viasat Film and Viasat Sp ...

and

RTÉ2 RTÉ2 is an Television in the Republic of Ireland, Irish free-to-air television channel operated by public service broadcaster RTÉ. It was launched in 1978 as the Republic of Ireland's second television channel. History In the 1970s, the Iri ...

. In December 2020, its existing two seasons were picked up by

Epix Epix (pronounced ''epics'' and stylized as P) is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by the Epix Entertainment LLC subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), a subsidiary of Amazon's MGM Holdings, Inc. The channel's pr ...

. They began premiering the second season on November 7, 2021.

Premise

Joe Turner is an idealistic millennial who joins the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

and hopes to reform it from within. He stumbles onto a secret plan that threatens the lives of millions. When professional killers massacre everyone in his office, Joe is forced into a battle with the most dangerous elements of the military-industrial complex.

Cast and characters

Main

as Joe Turner, a CIA analyst whose fellow agents in the research and development office are all killed. Marko Vujicic portrays a young Joe Turner in a recurring role. *

William Hurt William McChord Hurt (March 20, 1950 – March 13, 2022) was an American actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he received various awards including an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. H ...

as Bob Partridge (season 1, guest season 2), Joe's paternal uncle by marriage and the man who recruited him into joining the CIA. * Leem Lubany as Gabrielle Joubert (season 1, guest season 2), a former Mossad assassin working for the CIA operating as a freelancer. * Angel Bonanni as Deacon Mailer (season 1), an assassin. *

Kristen Hager Kristen Hager is a Canadian actress. She co-starred in films '' Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' (2007) and '' Wanted'' (2008), and played Leslie Van Houten in the independent film '' Leslie, My Name Is Evil'' (2009). From 2011 to 2014, Hager star ...

as Mae Barber, the wife of Joe's CIA colleague Sam. *

Mira Sorvino Mira Katherine Sorvino (; born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Woody Allen's '' Mighty Aphrodite'' (1995). She also starred in the films ...

as Marty Frost (season 1), Bob's former lover who leads the official investigation into Joe's alleged crime. *

Bob Balaban Robert Elmer Balaban (born August 16, 1945) is an American actor, author, comedian, director and producer. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for ''Gosford Park'' (2001), in which he also appeared. Balab ...

as Reuel Abbott, the Deputy Director of the CIA. *

Toby Leonard Moore Toby Leonard Moore (born 28 April 1981) is an Australian actor, best known for his roles as Victor in ''John Wick'' (2014), as James Wesley in the Netflix series '' Daredevil'' (2015), and Bryan Connerty in the Showtime series '' Billions'' (2 ...

as Gordon Piper (season 2) *

Constance Zimmer Constance Zimmer (born October 11, 1970) is an American actress. She rose to prominence for playing Dana Gordon in the television series '' Entourage'' (2005–2011) and Claire Simms in the television series ''Boston Legal'' (2006–2007). Sh ...

as Robin Larkin (season 2) * Alexei Bondar as Vasili Sirin (season 2) *

Isidora Goreshter Isidora Goreshter (born October 24, 1981) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Svetlana on the U.S. TV series '' Shameless'' from seasons 3 to 8. Early life Goreshter was born and raised in Long Beach, California, where she b ...

as Kat Gnezdy (season 2) * Jonathan Kells Phillips as Akardyr Volk (season 2) *

Eric Johnson Eric Johnson may refer to: Music *Eric Johnson (guitarist) (born 1954) an American guitarist and recording artist * Eric D. Johnson (born 1976), member of multiple indie-rock bands including Fruit Bats, The Shins and Califone Politics * Eric Joh ...

as Tracy Crane (season 2)

Recurring

* Katherine Cunningham as Kathy Hale (season 1) *

Brendan Fraser Brendan James Fraser ( ; born December 3, 1968) is an American-Canadian actor known for his leading roles in blockbusters, comedies, and dramatic films. Having graduated from the Cornish College of the Arts in 1990, he made his film debut in '' ...

as Nathan Fowler (season 1) * Gage Graham-Arbuthnot as Jude Barber *

Sam McCarthy Sam McCarthy is a New Zealand songwriter and pop vocalist. He is best known for his work in Kids of 88 and Goodnight Nurse. Early life McCarthy was brought up in Auckland in the suburb of Weymouth. He was educated at Weymouth Primary School ...

as Sam Barber Jr. *

Kristoffer Polaha Kristoffer Polaha is an American actor and author. He is known for his starring roles on television as Jason Matthews in '' North Shore'', Nathaniel "Baze" Bazile in ''Life Unexpected'', and Henry Butler in '' Ringer''. He has also appeared in ...

as Sam Barber (season 1) * Steve Belford as Manfredi (season 1) * Jamie Robinson as The Watcher (season 1) * Christina Moses as Sharla Shepard (season 1) *

Gabriel Hogan Gabriel Hogan (born 17 May 1973) is a Canadian-born American actor. He is best known for his continuing role on the hit cable television firefighter comedy series ''Tacoma FD'', CBC/Up TV/Netflix’s ''Heartland'' and the drama ''Condor''. ...

as Boyd Ferris (season 1) *

Ellen Wong Ellen Wong (born January 13, 1985) is a Canadian actress. She is known for her roles as Knives Chau in the 2010 film '' Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'', Jill "Mouse" Chen in The CW's series '' The Carrie Diaries'', and Jenny Chey in the Netflix s ...

as Sarah Tan (season 1) *

Michelle Vergara Moore Michelle Vergara Moore is an Australian actress, best known for her role as Ella/Lily in the NBC TV series '' La Brea'', Roxanne Waters in the Special Broadcasting Service television series '' The Unusual Suspects'', Chai Li Tivoli in '' The Time ...

as Carla Tizon (season 2) *

Kate Vernon Katherine Elizabeth Vernon (born April 21, 1961) is a Canadian-born American actress. She is known for her roles as Lorraine Prescott on the CBS primetime soap opera '' Falcon Crest'' (from 1984–1985), the stuck-up and popular Benny Hanson in ...

as Lily Partridge * Samer Salem as Ammar Nazari (season 1) *

Mouna Traoré Mouna Traoré (born May 4, 1995) is a Canadian actress and filmmaker. She is known for her performances in a variety of television series, such as Global TV's ''Rookie Blue'' (2012), CBC's ''Murdoch Mysteries'' (2015–2018), and Netflix's ''Th ...

as Iris Loramer (season 1) * Delmar Abuzeid as Caleb Wolfe (season 1) *

Melissa O'Neil Melissa Crystal O'Neil (born July 12, 1988) is a Canadian actress and singer. In 2005, O'Neil won the third season of '' Canadian Idol'', the first Canadian female to have won. As an actress, she is known for her roles as Two / Rebecca / Portia ...

as Janice (season 1) *

Kjartan Hewitt Kerr Hewitt, also credited professionally as Kjartan Hewitt, is a Canadian actor and writer. He won the Best Actor award at the Sicily Web Festival for his performance in the YouTube web series ''Clusterfuck'' (2018). Career Acting Hewitt began ...

as Harold Floss (season 1) * Jess Salgueiro as Jada * Tennille Read as Ellie *

Jamie McShane Jamie McShane is an American actor best known for his roles on ''Sons of Anarchy'', ''Southland'', and ''Bloodline'', and as Agent Jackson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films ''Thor'' (2011) and '' The Avengers'' (2012). In 2021, he appe ...

as Gareth Lloyd * John Bourgeois as Nathan's Father (season 1) * Taylor Thorne as Chloe Fowler * Jean-Michel Le Gal as Elden Loramer (season 1) * Ahmed Muslimani as Saeed Abu-Saeed * Rita Volk as Polina (season 2)

Guest

* Julian Black Antelope as Mika ("What Loneliness") * James McDougall as Tim Edward Mburu ("What Loneliness") * Roger Dunn as Dr. Lappe ("What Loneliness") * Kevin Claydon as Patrick ("The Solution to All Problems") * Jennifer Foster as Sophia Folwer ("A Good Patriot") * Raven Dauda as Hoyle ("A Good Patriot") *

Allison Hossack Allison Hossack (born January 26, 1965) is a Canadian actress. Early years Born in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada, Hossack grew up in Killarney, Manitoba, and participated in musical theatre productions while a student there. She began her studies ...

as Melanie Abbot ("No Such Thing")

Episodes

Each episode's title is borrowed from a quote, which is displayed along its author.

Season 1 (2018)

Season 2 (2020)

Production

Development

On May 13, 2016, it was announced that

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...

had given the production a series order. Production companies involved with the series were reported to include

Skydance Television Skydance Media, LLC (formerly known as Skydance Productions) is an American production company based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by David Ellison in 2006, the company entered a five-year partnership to co-produce and co-finance films wit ...

and

MGM Television MGM Television Worldwide Group and Digital (alternatively Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television Group and Digital, commonly known as MGM Television and then-known as MGM/UA Television; common metonym: Lion) is an American television production/dis ...

. On February 6, 2017, it was announced that

and Todd Katzberg would write the series. Smilovic would also act as showrunner and executive produce alongside Katzberg,

David Ellison David Ellison (born January 9, 1983) is an American film producer and actor best known as the founder and CEO of Skydance Media. Early life and education David Ellison was born in Santa Clara County, California. He is the son of billionaire Ora ...

, Dana Goldberg, and Marcy Ross. On March 27, 2017,

Andrew McCarthy Andrew Thomas McCarthy (born November 29, 1962) is an American actor, travel writer, and television director. He is most known as a member of the Brat Pack, with roles in 1980s films such as ''St. Elmo's Fire'', ''Pretty in Pink'', and '' Less ...

mentioned in an interview with '' Parade'' that he would serve as an executive producer for the series and direct a few episodes. On April 6, 2017, it was announced that

Lawrence Trilling Lawrence Trilling is a television director who has worked on many popular shows, including '' Alias'', '' Felicity'', ''Invasion'', ''Monk'', ''Pushing Daisies'', '' Scrubs'', '' Roswell'', '' Goliath'', and '' Parenthood''. In 2017, Trilling ...

would direct the series' first three episodes and act as an executive producer. On July 27, 2018, it was announced during the annual

Television Critics Association The Television Critics Association (TCA) is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canada, Canadian television television criticism, critics, journalists and columnists who cover television television programme, programming for newspapers, ...

's summer press tour that the series had been renewed for a second season. In February 2022, Epix renewed the show again for a third season.

Casting

On February 6, 2017, it was announced that

had been cast in the series' lead role. In April 2017, it was reported that

, Leem Lubany,

, and Angel Bonanni had joined the main cast and that

, Christina Moses, Katherine Cunningham,

, and

had been cast in recurring roles. On August 25, 2017, it was announced that

and

had joined the cast in a recurring capacity.

Filming

Principal photography for the series was expected to last from April 23 to August 15, 2017 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, Ontario, Canada. Filming primarily took place at

Cinespace Film Studios Cinespace Film Studios is a series of film studio facilities founded in 1988, by Greek-Canadian Nick Mirkopoulos. It includes a facility in Vaughan, that has been in operation since the 1960s. In 2007 Mirkopoulos helped his Greek-American nepheA ...

Kipling Avenue Kipling Avenue is a street in the cities of Toronto and Vaughan in Ontario, Canada. It is a concession road, 6 concessions (12 km) west from Yonge Street, and is a major north–south arterial road. It consists of three separate sec ...

facility. On May 30, 2017, Jack Lakey, a ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'' columnist, contacted the city's film liaison office, after ''Condor'' crew members allegedly bullied local residents. In Lakey's follow-up article the next day he quoted film industry workers, who supported those working on the production. Filming for the second season began on April 29, 2019 and ended on August 29, 2019.

Release

Marketing

On February 22, 2018, Audience released a behind-the-scenes video for the series.

Premiere

On March 10, 2018, the series held its official premiere in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

at the annual South by Southwest Film Festival. Audience also hosted an interactive experience called "Condor Headquarters" during the festival. Guests to the exhibit were offered the chance to participate in authentic CIA activities such as skill tests, physical and digital technology tactics,

lie detection Lie detection is an assessment of a verbal statement with the goal to reveal a possible intentional deceit. Lie detection may refer to a cognitive process of detecting deception by evaluating message content as well as non-verbal cues. It also ma ...

, and environmental analysis. The experience also allowed guests to win prizes and screen exclusive content from the series. In June 2018, the series was screened at the annual ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas. A question-and-answer session followed the screening featuring director/executive producer Lawrence Trilling and cast members Leem Lubany, Katherine Cunningham, Kristen Hager, and Kristoffer Polaha.

Reception

On the review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series holds an 86% approval rating with an average rating of 6.67 out of 10 based on 14 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads: "''Condor'' never aspires to be a realistic depiction of spy games – instead, it excels at evoking a uniquely 21st century brand of paranoia with its slick concept and propulsive pacing."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 66 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." In a positive review, ''

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

''s Ben Travers praised the series calling it "a Smartly Expanded Adaptation" and saying that it was "a solid spy story that updates the right elements without tarnishing old treasures."

References

External links

* * {{Audience Network 2018 American television series debuts 2010s American drama television series 2020s American drama television series English-language television shows MGM+ original programming Audience (TV network) original programming Live action television shows based on films Television series by MGM Television Television series about the Central Intelligence Agency Television shows filmed in Toronto American spy thriller television series Television series by Paramount Television Television series by Skydance Television