Peacock’s first look at “The Copenhagen Test” turns the spy thriller inside out — quite literally. In the teaser, Simu Liu plays an intelligence operative whose own mind has become the enemy’s most valuable asset, a surveillance feed they can tap like a live wire. Premiering December 27 and unveiled at New York Comic Con, the series comes from James Wan’s Atomic Monster and UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group, promising a sleek collision of psychological paranoia and high-tech espionage.
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Created by Thomas Brandon (“Legacies”) and Jennifer Yale (“See,” “Outlander”), the series follows Alexander Hale (Liu), a first-generation Chinese-American analyst who discovers his brain has been hacked, giving unseen operatives access to everything he sees and hears. Trapped between the intelligence agency he serves and the digital ghosts tracking his every move, Hale must perform his loyalty to both sides until he can expose who’s pulling the strings — before his thoughts stop being his own.
The teaser is taut and unnerving: flickers of surveillance footage, fractured reflections, and whispers of code hint at a world where consciousness is just another compromised network. “They’re always watching,” Liu mutters, his face caught between fear and calculation. It’s a chilling echo of modern surveillance culture refracted through genre — equal parts “Mr. Robot” and “The Conversation.”
Alongside Liu, the cast includes Melissa Barrera (“In the Heights,” “Scream V” and “VI”) as Michelle, Sinclair Daniel (“The Other Black Girl,” “Insidious: The Red Door”) as Parker, Brian D’Arcy James (“Spotlight,” “13 Reasons Why”) as Peter Moira, Mark O’Brien (“City on a Hill,” “Ready or Not”) as Cobb, and Kathleen Chalfant (“Wit,” “The Affair”) as St. George. Liu also executive produces, joining Wan, Michael Clear, Rob Hackett, Mark Winemaker, and Jet Wilkinson, who directs the opening two episodes.
For Wan, whose Atomic Monster banner has stretched beyond horror into elevated genre storytelling, the series channels his fascination with control, corruption, and the unseen machinery of fear. For Liu, “The Copenhagen Test” marks a new phase — one where the mind is both weapon and battlefield.
“The Copenhagen Test” premieres December 27 on Peacock.
