Who is your daddy, and what does he do? Well, in the new father-daughter action series set at Netflix, daddy is Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he is a CIA operative. The twist is that his daughter, played by Monica Barbaro, is also a spy, and neither knows about the other's secret.
The currently untitled series has been in development for a while and marks Schwarzenegger's first small-screen project as the lead. Set as eight episodes, Netflix must have ponied up a lot in what was surely a bidding war. The series comes from Skydance, who partnered with Schwarzenegger for both Terminator: Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate. While both films underperformed at the box office, there is no mistaking the popularity that Arnold still has with his fans.
“Fans from all over the world have been asking me for a wild ride like this for years, and now they’re finally going to get it because of our great partners at Skydance and Netflix," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "I am beyond pumped to start work on the show with Nick and Monica and the whole team.”
In addition to his starring role, Schwarzenegger will executive produce alongside series creator and showrunner Nick Santora. David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Bill Bost also executive produce for Skydance.
After starring in such television series as UnReal, Chicago Justice, Chicago P.D., The Good Cop, Splitting Up Together, and Stumptown, Barbaro is set to star as Phoenix in Top Gun: Maverick. With no desire to stop there, she's also signed on to star in the Patrick Gilles-directed biographical drama I'm Charlie Walker as well as Ricky D'Ambrose's The Cathedral. By adding Schwarzenegger's Netflix project to her resume, I feel like Barbaro is sending a clear signal to Hollywood that she's a force to be reckoned with. I hope for nothing but great things from this upcoming project and can't wait to see Arnie in a long-form spy drama sometime down the line. Bring it on!