There’s something quietly subversive about casting Keeley Hawes as a killer. Not a sleek, ice-veined assassin in stilettos, but a woman who’s simply trying to grill fish, sip wine, and be left the hell alone on a Greek island. Until—of course—it all goes sideways.
Prime Video UK just dropped the first trailer for The Assassin, a six-part series that looks like it could’ve been a vacation drama until it wasn’t. Hawes plays Julie, a former assassin whose violent past comes back to bite just as her estranged son Edward (Freddie Highmore, playing it tight and simmering) shows up with a bag full of unresolved trauma and daddy questions. The tension isn’t just in the chase—it’s in the reunion.
Here’s the twist: the trailer doesn’t rush. It lets the beauty of the island lull you into a false sense of peace. A beach here, a quiet stare there, and then—bang. Everything explodes. If you’re thinking Killing Eve meets Before Sunset via The Bourne Identity, you’re not far off. But it has its own thing going on. A mother-son story where the bonding comes not over dinner, but dodging bullets and diving off cliffs.
Created by Harry & Jack Williams—veterans of layered, twisty dramas like The Missing and Baptiste—the show leans hard into their brand of familial tension wrapped in thriller plotting. There’s emotional weight behind the chaos. Add in direction from Lisa Mulcahy and Daniel Nettheim (Broadchurch, Line of Duty) and a supporting cast featuring Gina Gershon, Jack Davenport, and Alan Dale, and you’ve got pedigree.
But let’s not pretend this is just prestige drama with accents. There’s a sly energy here. The camera lingers just a beat too long. The dialogue cuts in all the wrong places—on purpose. You don’t see the violence coming, and when it does, it’s jarring. Personal. Not stylized. No neon lights or synthwave soundtrack. Just sun, blood, and very bad timing.
Highmore, whose work has often leaned cerebral (The Good Doctor, Bates Motel), feels more grounded here—more reactive. But make no mistake, this is Hawes’ arena. Every line she delivers has a double edge, and when the calm breaks, she moves like someone who’s done this before. Because she has. And she regrets it.
The Assassin premieres July 25, 2025 on Prime Video in the UK and Ireland. No word yet on a US release—but the international flavor may work better without the American marketing machine scrubbing the nuance off.
Is it reinventing the genre? Probably not. But it is reshaping it. From the inside out. With olive trees and body bags.
What do you think—can a sun-drenched thriller about trauma and reconnection cut through the noise this summer? Or is it just another stylish escape fantasy with a kill count?
