Netflix's celebration of queer animated characters - as seen in Big Mouth and Super Drags - is set to continue, with actor Sean Hayes fronting a new series about a group of LGBTIQ+ superspies.
The adult animated series is being written by Gabe Liedman, known for his work on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Pen15, and produced by Hazy Mills, the production company run by Hayes and producer Todd Milliner.
According to a press release, the 10-episode series, titled Q-Force, is about “about a handsome secret agent and his team of fellow LGBTQ superspies."
The statement continues: "Constantly underestimated by their colleagues, the members of Q-Force have to prove themselves time and again as they embark on extraordinary professional (and personal) adventures.”
Discussing the show with , Milliner revealed that he and Hayes had been wanting to do a gay spy series for a long time.
“A spy TV series is so tough, because they’re so expensive," he said.
“We were thinking how do we get to do gay spy and every week, and the only way to do that is animated, because we can do all of the fun parts of a James Bond film. We can travel, we can have big chase sequences; animation is allowing us that freedom.”
Hayes added: “Also, I don’t know that the studios would greenlight a feature with a leading character that’s gay in that genre. Hopefully they will, but that doesn’t seem like right now.”
Reflecting on how the pair first started developing the show's concept, Hayes said it all happened while driving his car to work.
“I pulled over and I rolled down my window and I said: ‘Hey Mike, would you want to work on something together?” He’s like, ‘What is it?’ And I said ‘Gay James Bond’, and he said, ‘Yeah, I would do that’. So that’s how it all kind of started.”