Emilia Clarke will lead the cast of Cold War spy thriller PONIES, which comes from the director of The Flight Attendant and is headed to US streaming service Peacock.

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The series takes place in 1970s Moscow, where Bea (Clarke) works in the American Embassy, utilising her fluent understanding of Russian as the child of Soviet Union immigrants to the United States.

She and her colleague, Twila (as-yet-uncast), are "persons of no interest" – or PONIES – to the US government, until their husbands are killed in the USSR and they are tasked with becoming CIA operatives in order to investigate the suspicious deaths.

Mr Robot scribe David Iserson has been confirmed as showrunner on the project, while The Flight Attendant's Susanna Fogel is his co-creator and co-writer as well as executive producer.

Deadline reports that NBC-Universal, the owners of Peacock, had been interested in the project for some time, but only issued a full season order when Clarke formally came on board.

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The former Game of Thrones star is also known for romance films Me Before You and Last Christmas, as well as underwhelming franchise fare Terminator Genisys, Solo: A Star Wars Story and Marvel's Secret Invasion.

With a strong creative team behind the camera, fans will be hoping that PONIES will fare better than the latter three. Clarke also has Prime Video's Criminal and Netflix's The Twits coming down the pipeline.

Emilia Clarke smiling
Emilia Clarke. Getty

A major co-starring role is up for grabs in the form of Twila, described as a "small-town girl" who is "abrasive" and "fearless", but there's no word on who will be playing that character at the time of writing.

Likewise, it's unclear where PONIES will be available in the UK, with Peacock no longer available to Brits (who previously had the option of subscribing to it via Sky).

Some Peacock originals have been scooped up by rival streamers, such as PlayStation adaptation Twisted Metal on Paramount Plus, so it's quite possible that PONIES will find a prominent home elsewhere.

PONIES is coming soon to Peacock.

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