Mike Myers discovers a secret society in The Pentaverate trailer
The Austin Powers actor will be playing eight different characters in the Netflix sci-fi comedy series
Aux News Mike Myers
Mike Myers seems to have found his mojo again. In the new teaser for his upcoming Netflix series The Pentaverate, the Wayne’s World comedian will be playing eight different characters in the comedy about a five-man secret society.
The Pentaverate will be the actor’s first return to the silver screen since appearing in 2018's Bohemian Rhapsody as record label executive Ray Foster.
Netflix’s logline for the six-episode series reads, “What if a secret society of five men has been working to influence world events for the greater good since the Black Plague of 1347? As this new series begins, one unlikely Canadian journalist finds himself embroiled in a mission to uncover the truth and just possibly save the world himself. Remember, the Pentaverate must never be exposed!”
The teaser clip definitely doesn’t expose a whole bunch, but we do get to see a few of the characters Myers’ will portray. His plaid-wearing Canadian journalist is at the forefront, but one has to assume that hiding under one of those plague masks is another member of the Myers’ crew. Ken Jeong also gets to ask the question everyone is wondering, “The Penta–what the fuck?”
In a way, this concept was first seeded from 1993's So I Married An Axe Murderer, the dark rom-com where Myers’ commitment phobic Charlie starts to believe his girlfriend Harriet (played by Nancy Travis) is a serial killer. In the flick, Charlie’s Scottish father (also played by Myers) rants about the Pentaverate and their members consisting of “the Queen, the Vatican, the Gettys, the Rothschilds, and Colonel Sanders before he went tits up,” who influence society.
The Pentaverate stars Myers (who will also executive produce) with a supporting cast consisting of Ken Jeong (Community), Keegan-Michael Key (Key and Peele), Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous), Debi Mazar (Younger), Richard McCabe (The Constant Gardner), and Lydia West (It’s A Sin).
Producing the mini-series along with Myers will be director Tim Kirkby (Fleabag, Veep), John S. Lyons, Tony Hernandez and Lilly Burns for Jax Media and Jason Weinberg.
Uncover the secret society of The Pentaverate when it comes to Netflix on May 5.
152 Comments
well at least it looks expensive.
And yet, also looks like a cheap Terry Gilliam knock off.
no no it looks like an expensive terry gilliam knockoff.
I doubt Gilliam himself can get this kind of budget these days.
Is it a bad sign that Keegan-Michael Key is in this? I know it’s not personally his fault, but the dude has a penchant for being in bad movies. Name a good movie that has Keegan-Michael Key in it. You can’t. It doesn’t exist. I think his agent hates him.
Keanu.
Yeah, I like him a lot but he seems to be perpetually stuck in a series of projects that he is way too talented to be in.
Oh, come now, he’s got The Bubble coming up – a comedy film about trying to shoot a franchise movie during the pandemic that stars David Duchovny, Lesley Mann, and Kate McKinnon, and is produced by and being exclusively released on Netflix-Actually, you now what? Never mind.
Oh, shit. You are correct. Per Wikipedia, his good movie was The Disaster Artist (I thought it was good anyways, and critical consensus kind of agreed). I don’t remember him at all in the film, but he was in it.
he was “in it” the same way that JJ Abrams and Lizzy Caplan and Adam Scott were “in it”, before the actual movie starts they pop up as themselves for 10 seconds like a documentary talking head going “I saw the Room once, it was fuckin crazy bro”
Keanu.
yeah was gonna say the same thing but since this isn’t a movie there’s a chance it’s good…ken jeong certainly doesn’t bode well, though.
Oh, it is a show. I watched half the trailer and thought it was a movie. Plus I didn’t read the article. And I like Ken Jeong. He appeals to me in the way Danny McBride does: playing the exact same character in everything but continuously making it funny.
Ken Jeong deeply understands his career and his place in the business.See that Bud Light commercial where he’s a wingman who introduces himself by saying “I’m the guy from that thing!”
He’s got a few decent films on his resume. In the last decade alone he’s been in Dolemite Is My Name, Toy Story 4, The Lego Movie, and The Disaster Artist. Hell, even Don’t Think Twice was watchable even though it’s somehow an intentional non-comedy about improv comedians. Of course, none of these would be considered Keegan-Michael Key films (though Don’t Think Twice comes close). His starring vehicles are pretty bad.He does much better on television, which would be a good sign for this show, though the trailer isn’t exactly leaving a good first impression.
Name a good movie that has Keegan-Michael Key in it. You can’t. It doesn’t exist.
I liked Get Out.
Is this a bad joke or just ignorance?
Neither?
Honey, he’s not in that movie.
Yes, he is. He has a small cameo.
No, you have to pick one… unless you’re being accidentally racist.
I’m going joke since a sizeable portion of TV/movie fans probably don’t know which guy is which.
He has a cameo in the movie.
It may not be true any longer, but this used to apply to Oliver Platt. He was the best thing about everything he was in, which wasn’t really saying much. I prefer to think somebody says “this thing sucks, let’s bring in Platt to try to salvage something”
Platt started his career as a character actor and has been more than happy to stay in that lane every since. He’s great as the lead’s amusing yet secretly competent sidekick.
Dolemite Is My Name, Keanu, The Lego Movie
Are you suggesting that Mike Myers is somehow NOT associated with incredibly shitty movies?
I just don’t get why he will not longer take a role that doesn’t involve (entirely unnecessary, as in doesn’t add anything to the character) prosthetics.
Movie, no, but he was in the first season of Fargo, and that was okay.
He’s in “Don’t Think Twice” which is great… and “Dolemite Is My Name”, which is pretty good…. and of course all of “Key & Peele” which is pure genius!
He’s great in Key & Peele, which is why I find his lack of success in movies surprising. He’s got great presence and charisma, but no one has really untapped it on screen in a movie.
Chris Rock not being in this is a good sign though.
Rock’s movie role choices relative to his standup material are real head-scratchers. I guess he makes the majority of his earnings in Sandler and Kevin James pics (plus Madagascar) so he can fuck around with whatever really interests him in the off-season.
I know. He was ok in Fargo but he wasn’t amazing by any means. Although the last two seasons of Fargo have fallen off a bit from the first two so that may not entirely be Rock’s fault.
I haven’t seen his Fargo seasons but the trailers were not encouraging. Time for New Jack City II: The Jackening
I’m guessing this won’t be a popular answer as no one has posted it so far, but I really enjoyed “Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey”, terrible title aside, I thought it was a really sweet, warm hearted musical with some great songs in it.
I’m that one person that kind of liked Tomorrowland. He had about four minutes of screen time in that.
Dolemite Is My Name
Don’t Think Twice, Toy Story 4, Dolemite Is My Name…
If you cut off the god-awful bookends, Jingle Jangle is a pretty fun piece of Christmas fluff, and his big song is one of the highlights.
Don’t Think Twice.
Two things: This is a series, not a movie. And Schmigadoon was excellent.
You know, I might actually check out Schmigadoon. It’s been there on the apple tv as a thing to watch but I always pass it over. The trailer made it seem pretty decent, so I’m not sure what my problem is with it.
You’re 100% correct. I assume he’s, like, in desperate need for money because he does a lot of stuff and most of it is meh to awful. And that sucks because I really, really LIKE him – he obviously can be funny as hell.
Haha my first thought, too! The man is cursed!
I straight-up LOVE Don’t Think Twice. Saw it twice in the theaters.
I thought Don’t Think Twice was pretty good. He played a comedic sketch performer.
In a trailer that features a microphone labelled “Caca News”, an accidental-anal-insertion joke as its apex, and freaking KEN JEONG…. you think *Keegan-Michael Key* is the ominous stormcloud????
He’s good in The Prom, which I liked.
And yet he and Peele were two of the better performers on MadTV.
You know, I watched Mad TV when it came on. I do not remember Key and Peele at all.I know I’m not the only one. The show came out and was supposed to be the competitor to SNL. Many dumbshits, myself included, watched it and were unimpressed. We all saw Will Sasso and chuckled at things, but then we switched back to SNL. The theme song kind of stuck and we all were like, “mad mad come on come on mad.”
It wasn’t great, though it did have some genuinely talented cast members, Debra Wilson was my favorite. This is one sketch Key was in. Not a great sketch, but I gotta admit, he looks good in drag…
And Peele. Yeah, I can see why he wanted to leave Madtv behind…
He needs to take his occasional partner’s lead and produce his own stuff, since what’s being offered is clearly not maximizing his talents.
Netflix is so desperate they’re wheeling out Mike Myers to do a movie where he plays 8 parts, but sure, Keegan-Michael Key is the problem.
You don’t like Pitch Perfect?For shame.
It’s probably the corny a capella puns. The singing is good, though.
On top of all the other movies people mention , he was in Freaks of Nature , which I love!
Jingle Jangle is a decent enough Christmas musical.Also the Prom (another musical) was fun. But I think it’s most from Meryl Streep hamming it up.
He was a voice in The Lego Movie, and that movie is very much in the W column.
Well he’s not funny and is basically the definition of over-acting-because-that’s-funny-right-please-say-it’s-funny, so this checks out.
Dolomite is My Name is a great movie in which he stars.
This is a show, of which there are many he’s starred and guested in to acclaim.
Shocked that someone caught the So I Married An Axe Murderer reference. I loved that movie in early high school. Not sure how many times I watched that vhs tape, but it was a lot.
That trailer gets completely deflated like a popped balloon the *second* Ken Jeong says “the pentawhatthefuck?” It’s just an immediate flashing sign with blaring siren that just reads “NONE OF THIS IS GOING TO BE FUNNY”
“heeed! Move!”
“Piper down! We got a piper down!”
Charlie’s dad was the best character in that film. I always wonder why we never saw more of him.
Edit: Haha. Finally got the trailer to play. They meet at “The Meadows”
Wonder which one of the remaining writers around here will pull the short straw and be forced to review this.
Probably the one who thinks Netflix is “the silver screen”
Possibly, if there were any editors around to notice that after this story went up.
The Pentaverate will be the actor’s first return to the silver screen since appearing in 2018’s Bohemian RhapsodyTV is not the “silver screen”. That term is reserved for the screen at movie theaters.
Like people “filming” with their phone cameras.
Or that other thing they do with the phones — “dialing”.
I always thought movie theatres were the Gold Screen, TVs were the Silver Screen, and iPhones were the Bronze Screen.
It kind of saddens me that I’m not even surprised by shit like this anymore.
I think it may be time to put my Netflix account on hold for a while. Their new offerings have been pretty underwhelming lately.
i think i might take a break till stranger things.
Wait, Stranger Things is considered good?!
there was a point when I thought having ALL these hundreds of outlets for up and coming filmmakers to release their content was a good thing, until I got fed up paying $8/month for 50 different channels, and that Netflix’s entire catalog of new content can be summed up IMO as “meh”.
It’s funny that the early streamers were taken as an opportunity for cord-cutters to get their content off the internet and drop the $100+/mo. cable subscription. Now it’s more expensive to subscribe to all the platforms you need to add up to a full set of decent shows to watch.
They just had the latest season of The Last Kingdom, which is excellent.
Agreed, we’re just about ready. I have some stand up specials I want to watch first, then just park it for 6 months or so. We watch way more HBO Max these days.
It’s quantity, not quality with them.
s2 of Warrior Nun might be the next Netflix thing I am actually looking forward to
I was edge of my seat wondering about your financial decisions.
Okay so how is the Pentavirate “five men” if one of them is the Queen? WHAT DON’T WE KNOW ABOUT THE QUEEN?
She stepped away from the Pentaverate due to her age, and handed duties over to her son.Unfortunately, that son was Andrew.
Also, crucially, why is it it mixing Latin and Greek roots!? Pick a lane: either its ‘Quinvirate’ or ‘Pentarchy,’ jeez!!
Is Mike Myers doing an adaptation of Balzac’s History of the Thirteen? or is it his remake of Out 1 with him doing a majority of the characters with bad prosthetics?
I get a feeling Mike Meyers will also be portraying the audience for this.
FYI: “portraying” isn’t a synonym for “punishing”…
HypnoHelioStaticStasis was more my jam, but I do enjoy Deeeeeep Hurrrrting.
Wow that last joke that ends the trailer…. woof.That is terrible.
Yeah theres nothing in the trailer that lands. High concept un-funny business.
That’s been Mike Myers in everything after the first Austin Powers, really.
What happened? Did he just have better writers back then? Or, he had writers back then?
Not only is it a terrible punchline (man likes anal sex haha?), but it also doesn’t really work on its own terms. The idea of a meat thermometer (too many syllables to be funny) laying around a party, probe-side up, is too much of a bizarre scenario to be a natural punchline. You’re scratching your head trying to picture the scene he’s describing and just completely miss the landing. Surely they could have come up with some other phallic (and less sharp) object?They say the surest way to kill a joke is to dissect it, but this one was already DOA, so I think we’re safe.
Maybe it’s a long running joke where this guy is constantly “accidentally” backing onto more and more outlandish things?ha
Ripping off an ancient (admittedly classic) Seinfeld bit is just brutally lazy. Hopefully they don’t outright say “it was one in a million, doc!”
Do you know what a meat thermometer looks like? There’s no way this can be confused as an “anal sex” joke if so. The joke is that he got stabbed in the ass cheek by a sharp metal object, and *that* was more fun than whatever he is currently experiencing.
And it’s the only joke in the trailer. It’s a bad sign when a comedy trailer has one joke and it’s absolutely awful.
I’m pretty sure technically “the pentawhatthefuck?” is also supposed to be a joke. Everything is terrible.
Yah. It’s bad.
Yeah, if this gets into The Love Guru territory, it’s going to be a hard pass.
“Head! Move!”
It’s like Sputnik!
Like an orange on a toothpick!
It has it’s own weather system.
Like a planetoid!
I enjoy being reminded of one of his few funny films.
“oh he’ll be crying himself to sleep tonight…on his GIANT pillow”
“Well, the truth of the matter is, I don’t report to a Commissioner. I report to a committee. Some of whom are appointed, some elected, and the rest co-opted on a bi-annual basis. It’s a quorum, so to speak.”
He really couldn’t try any harder to be Peter Sellers without marrying Britt Ekland, could he?
What, they couldn’t work a Fat Bastard/Goldmember/Mini-Me story into a show? I always wanted to see what happened to Noah Vanderhoff in serial story format. Maybe Ione Skye’s pizza waitress character from Wayne’s World?
I’m going against the safe bet here and thinking this will be funny in a way that isn’t exploitable via trailers. Myers always struck me as a guy who was best when he was making comedy that made him laugh, and less so when he was making comedy designed to make audiences laugh. Commercial expectations are his kryptonite.I fully accept this is not the popular consensus.
in what universe was he some avant garde innovator making personal comedy? he was always multiplex schlock for the masses
Wayne’s World was pretty innovative for the time. Much more so than Austin Powers or Shrek. And watching WW recently, it holds up. Even if most people under 50 have no idea what a “cable access show” was.
Most of his stuff is parodying things that only he gets. That’s why so much of it flops. When it works, such as with Austin Powers or parodying his mother for Coffee Talk, it’s usually in spite of that fact.
Its only cool to hate Mike Myers on the AV Club. I’m cautiously optimistic
Awww, he wants to be Tatiana Maslany when he grows up.
is it telling that among such a stacked cast, the one name that gives me the most trepidation is Mike Myers’s? LOLI can’t help getting a strong “Love Guru” vibe from this. Yikes.
The deliberately gross latex, stream of shocked people being put on trial before a kangaroo court, and lame anal sex joke is giving me a strong “Nothing but Trouble” vibe.
If only Shock G were still around to redeem it with a kick-ass song.
The Digital Underground cameo and the weird “Bonestripper” song were the only fun things about that movie. It was a mind screw, and not in a good way.
I saw that piece of shit opening weekend with my late father. It was bewildering how stupid this was, even to preteen me.
That being said, I will forever think of cigars as “dog rockets”
OLD COMEDIAN TRIES TO REVIVE CAREER WITH ONE TRICK PONY – NEWS AT 11!
Tommy Maitland’s big comeback is here at last!
The Austin Powers actor will be playing eight different charactersThat’s a lot of Scottish accents
I can’t help myself, Mike Myers makes me laugh. Even if this is dumb, there’s got to be 5-6 really good laughs in there minimum. That’s worth it, especially on the silver screen.
Everyone talks about how Austin Powers killed James Bond… but it kind of killed Mike Myers too
No one talks about that.
Sure they do. It comes up whenever someone asks why James Bond doesn’t fuck any more
He got along for a while as a cartoon troll. What really killed him was trying to out-Carrey the Grinch with that big-hatted Cat.
Yeah, I posted something similar above about his seeming addiction to prosthetics, including in situations that don’t really call for them. It’s like he insists. “So I’m thinking a big silly nose for this one.” “Um…he’s just a regular guy.” “Read the contract, asshole.”
Seriously though. I thought he was great as a regular schlubby dude in So I Married an Axe Murderer. But that bombed
The Cat in the Hat killed Mike Meyers
Please god don’t have Mike Myers get with some woman 40 years his younger. Please.
When what they can come up with in the trailer includes “from the mind of Mike Myers”…maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t inspire confidence.
The Colonel puts a wee chemical into his chicken, makes me crave it fortnightly.
MM, I love you and, for a good film, I’m willing to forget The Love Guru.
OK, this has indeed made me laugh, but only because it brought up memories of “So I Married an Axe Murderer” and Charlie’s father.
“Gee. I think this calls for a Scottish accent.”
I see Ken Jeong brought his bag of trick.
Will this cover the secret chemical that the Colonel, with his wee beedy eyes, puts in his chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly?!
Gallagher and Carrot Top have always been known as the bottom of the comedy barrel for doing “prop comedy”. Can we do the same thing to Mike Myers for his “prosthetic comedy”?
I loved Wayne’s World, Axe Murderer, and the first Austin Powers, but it’s like the lesson he’s taken from the latter ever since is that funny makeup and voices equal comedy.
Fat Bastard – the beginning of the end.
So many prosthetics… surely he could have invited Martin Short to bring along his own suitcase of latex bits? I mean, don’t the over-the-hill Canadian funnymen have to stick together or something? Isn’t that part of their universal health care?
I see this being listed elsewhere as an actual spin-off to So I Married an Axe Murderer, and am really hoping that means that Anthony LaPaglia and Alan Arkin are coming back.Their scenes together were some of the best in the film. As well as LaPaglia and Charles Grodin. And of course, Phil Hartman’s cameo as Vickie.
Alan Arkin is dead
No, he’s still alive.
That was a painfully unfunny trailer.
Man… I saw the title and that Mike Meyers was doing it and I got REALLY excited thinking it was him playing the Scottish dad from Ax Murderer. Him and Head hunting a worldwide conspiracy involving a secret society. Breaking into Buckingham Palace, the Vatican, and maybe a secret cave lair in the backwoods of Kentucky. Now, THAT is something I can get on board with! Now that I have seen the trailer, my excitement levels have dissipated greatly.
Needs a laugh track.