The Sympathizer: Trailer Released For HBO Series

A trailer has been released for Park Chan-wook’s The Sympathizer, a seven-part limited series which is a collaboration between A24 and HBO.

Based on the Pulitzer- Prize-winning 2015 novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer is set at the climax of the Vietnam War and focuses on a North Vietnam army plant, named The Captain, hiding within the South Vietnam forces. Spying on a community of South Vietnamese refugees, he finds his loyalties torn between his original duties and his newly established ties.

Cowboy Bebop‘s Hoa Xuande has been cast in the lead role. Other cast members include Killing Eve‘s Sandrah Oh, The Neighborhood‘s Kieu Chinh, and The Judge Is a Woman‘s Marine Delterme.

Additionally, Robert Downey Jr. has been cast in several antagonist roles. These reportedly include a CIA operative, an Orange County Congressman, and a Hollywood director. The Oppenheimer star recently received his first-ever Oscar win at the 96th Academy Awards for his role as Rear Admiral Lewis Strauss.

Park is best known for his films Oldboy (2003), The Handmaiden (2016), and Decision to Leave (2022). The South Korean director is credited as a co-creator with Don McKellar. Park will also direct the series alongside Fernando Meirelles and Marc Munden.

Park previously teased the show in a 2023 interview. He told Indiewire that “it’s a seven-episode series, and it’s set in 1975, immediately after the Vietnam War. The story covers Vietnamese refugees who have migrated to L.A. and the stories surrounding that environment. Because of the context, casting revolves around having a lot of diversity, especially a heavy presence of Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans.”

Aside Cowboy Bebop, Xuande’s other credits include Elvin in Ronny Chieng: International Student (2022) and Khoa in Hungry Ghosts (2020).

The Sympathizer is released on Max on 14th April 2024.