The legendary King of Rock and Roll is about to trade in his stage cape for a superhero one. Sony Pictures Animation made a post on their official Twitter account, announcing a new adult animated show with Netflix appropriately called Agent Elvis, along with a colorful poster to commemorate the occasion. The series had previously been titled Agent King when it was first announced.Just in time for the King's birthday, the announcement comes right on the heels of the immense success and splendor of the biopic film Elvis (2022), which starred Austin Butler along with Tom Hanks. The show, which was formerly titled Agent King before being changed to Agent Elvis, is to be an animated episodic series featuring Elvis as himself, but with a fun twist. That is, he gets secretly recruited by the CIA as a spy to help the government fight against crime and all manner of evils that threaten the country, all while continuing to perform sell-out shows as the King of Rock and Roll - quite the full plate.
The show was created by Elvis's ex-wife Priscilla Presley and Jersey rocker John Eddie, who secretly had the project in the pipeline for years. The series will be made by Sony Animation, with Archer writer Mike Arnold serving as the showrunner. Elvis Presley's former associate Jerry Schilling will also serve as a consultant on the series, Fletcher Moules will be the supervising director, and John Varvatos will be the costume designer for animated Elvis.
An impassioned collaboration long in the works, the end product evidently looks polished and enticing, especially with all the Elvis hype in the air lately. Elvis shows vibrantly on the official poster, complete with his signature gold sunglasses along with a golden handgun, no doubt for his newfound profession. The animation style is colorful and striking, well-suited for its lead star. Priscilla Presley said of the exciting new project in a previous interview with Variety:
“From the time Elvis was a young boy he always dreamed of being the superhero fighting crime and saving the world! Agent King lets him do just that...My co-creator John Eddie and I are so excited to be working with Netflix and Sony Animation on this amazing project and getting the chance to show the world an Elvis they haven’t seen before.”
The poster notes the series as 'Coming Soon,' meaning a release date is still TBD.
The Elvis Spark Comes Back With a Swagger in the Era of Blockbuster Biopics
While the fandom surrounding Elvis Presley has never truly dimmed out of American culture, the recent blockbuster biopic Elvis saw him return to the stage and big screen in the exceptionally talented hands of young Austin Butler. The actor devoted three rigorous years of isolated preparation and craft to the role that carried tremendous weight, and it paid off staggeringly well. It became the second highest-grossing biopic of all time behind Bohemian Rhapsody, and has earned Butler several award nominations and wins so far. The magnetic appeal of dramatic biopics has surged back up in recent years, with films depicting various timeless figures, including Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in the controversial biopic Blonde (2022), Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in Spencer (2021), Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), and Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland in Judy (2019), just to name a few.
The irresistible blend of fact and fiction behind the face of a popular and often tragic figure has been drawing audiences to theaters time and time again. With such advancement in special effects (like de-aging) and an endless supply of celebrity, there continues to undoubtedly be countless pitches for more and more projects depicting all of these memorable figures, to re-imagine and relive landmark moments in history as if you're right there in the middle of them. There's no doubt that Elvis won't be anywhere near the last big-scale biopic that we'll see come to theaters.