Steering ever further into his “worried sidekick of other, more badass characters” niche, Sherlock and Black Panther star Martin Freeman has signed on for a new spy thriller where he plays, you guessed it, the worried former handler of a badass rogue spy. According to Deadline, Freeman has been cast in a leading role in The Operative, opposite Diane Kruger as his former colleague, a member of Isreal’s intimidating Mossad who’s supposedly gone rogue.
The film is being written and directed by Yuval Adler, whose last film, 2013's Bethlehem, was dubbed a “complex and nuanced examination of the conflicted loyalties and dangerous relationships that characterize daily life in the Middle East” by our own Mike D’Angelo. This new film sounds just as fraught, with Freeman working to alternatively track down and protect his potentially dangerous former friend after she apparently turns her back on the Israeli government. The Operative is set to start filming next month in Israel and Bulgaria.