Ponies (TV series)

Ponies is an American buddy spy thriller television series created by Susanna Fogel and David Iserson for Peacock, and starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson. The series premiered on January 15, 2026, on Peacock.

Premise

In 1977, two secretaries working at the American embassy in Moscow become CIA operatives after their spy husbands die under mysterious circumstances.

Cast and characters

Main

Emilia Clarke as Beatrice "Bea" Grant
Haley Lu Richardson as Twila Hasbeck
Adrian Lester as Dane Walter
Artjom Gilz as Andrei Vasiliev
Vic Michaelis as Cheryl
Nicholas Podany as Ray
Petro Ninovskyi as Sasha Shevchenko

Recurring

Harriet Walter as Manya Caplan
Louis Boyer as Chris Grant
John Macmillan as Tom Hasbeck
Lili Walters as Ivanna
Andrew Richardson as Shep
Paul Chahidi as Alan Salek
Maxim Gall as Trent
Tanya Ivanova as Vera
Pál Mácsai as Emile
Tom Stourton as George Tallman
Ana Neborac as Tatiana
Sophia Shkliaruk as Galyna
Clare Hughes as Eevi
Diana Gardner as Aksana
Nikita Kukushkin as Yuri

Guest

Patrick Fabian as George H. W. Bush
Eddie Toll as Mikhail
Rob Delaney as Stanley
Simon Haines as Sgt Davis Carter
Filipp Avdeev as Lev
Sofia Kyrychenko as Katya
Ivan Doan as Nikolai
Natascha Bondar as Sofia
Elisabeth Snegir as Young Sofia

Production

The series is created by Susanna Fogel and David Iserson. Fogel directs the series, with Iserson as showrunner. Jessica Rhoades executive produces for Pacesetter Productions and Alison Mo Massey co-executive produces along with Katherine Bridle. Universal Television are producers. In August 2024, Emilia Clarke became attached to star and be an executive producer on the series.
Haley Lu Richardson joined the cast in November 2024. On February 4, 2025, Adrian Lester and Nicholas Podany were among those added to the cast.
Filming began in Budapest, Hungary in February 2025.

Release

The series premiered on January 15, 2026, on Peacock.

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 96% approval rating based on 26 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "As much a buddy adventure as it is an espionage caper, Ponies likable trot of a story gradually achieves full gallop thanks to Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson's tag-team charisma." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 75 out of 100 based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Vulture praised Clarke and Richardson's on-screen chemistry and how the series allows them to "put a spin on the types you may already associate with them" such as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones and Portia in The White Lotus. Likewise, Variety calls Clarke and Richardson's chemistry the "glue that binds the whole enterprise together". In a more mixed review, Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Ponies might have "moments of dazzle" but their lack of depth makes it a "forgettable distraction".