The legendary life of Elvis Presley gets a delightfully bizarre animated adaptation with the Netflix original series, Agent Elvis. The highly fictionalized show begins in 1968 and envisions a world where Elvis moonlights as a vigilante, catching the attention of The Central Bureau, a mysterious spy organization. Elvis begins to work with TCB, completing top-secret missions while uncovering a conspiracy that stretches back to his days in the Army. Think Archer meets Elvis, which makes sense, considering the program hails from showrunner Mike Arnold, best known for his work on the FX network's acclaimed spy comedy.
Agent Elvis stars Matthew McConaughey as Elvis, utilizing a variation of his natural Southern drawl instead of a kitschy impersonation. The rest of the cast includes heavy hitters like Don Cheadle, Kaitlin Olsen, Ed Helms, and numerous others, with even Priscilla Presley playing herself, to great effect. The ultimate result is a raunchy and raucous show that is full of deep-cut jokes for Elvis fans, as well as enough broad humor and gorgeous animation to satisfy a wide range of audiences, all while paying tribute to the talent, swagger, and idiosyncrasies of Elvis.
While promoting the release of Agent Elvis on Netflix, co-creator and co-showrunner John Eddie joined showrunner Mike Arnold to speak to Screen Rant about their work on the show. They talked about how important it was to honor Elvis without relying on cheap humor at his expense. They also discussed their approach to storytelling, creating historical fiction by drawing on real-life Elvis history and world events, all filtered through the audacious sensibilities of Agent Elvis.
Mike Arnold & John Eddie on the Delightfully Outrageous Agent Elvis
Screen Rant: I'm a huge Elvis fan. And with my job, I decided I needed to know if Agent Elvis was a loving tribute to the greatest artists of all time or a skewering of this man who I genuinely love so much. After watching the whole season, I can say I'm very pleased with the result. You guys made a wonderful show!
Mike Arnold: That's awesome, man!
John Eddie: That's so nice to hear, because yeah, our intention was to respect and honor the cool of Elvis, but also to push the envelope and make a very cool and rock and rolling show, too.
Screen Rant: Tell me about your relationship working with Priscilla. How did you get her to trust you, that you were going to "have fun with Elvis" and not "make fun of Elvis?"
John Eddie: I'm, probably like you, a lifelong Elvis fan. I'm a musician and a songwriter. I first met Priscilla because I did two tours opening up for Lisa Marie when she had her first couple of albums out. I got to be friends with Lisa Marie and Priscilla.
Over the years, when I would come out to L.A., Priscilla and I would go out to dinner and we just had a really creative friendship. We'd talk about all sorts of ideas. In 2012, I brought this idea to her that was inspired by the famous photo of Elvis and Richard Nixon, where Elvis is offering his services as a DEA agent going undercover to battle the evil forces of the counter culture.
And that was the germ of the idea. But the way I pitched it to her, and because I'm such a huge Elvis fan, I've seen every movie about Elvis, every TV series, and every time, no matter how great the actor is who depicted Elvis, you never got past the fact that they didn't look like Elvis. You never got past the fact that they weren't Elvis. That's why I pitched it as an animated series. I thought that was maybe the closest way to get past that hesitation. I love Kurt Russell, I thought he was one of the best Elvis actors ever, up until this past year, Austin Butler's portrayal was so great, too. But still, you go, "Yeah, they're great, but they're not Elvis."
I thought that if it was animated, maybe we could capture it. Because we built this friendship up, and she knew what a fan I was and how respectful I was to the whole idea of Elvis. I'm a true fan of his. In fact, that was one of our overriding goals: Elvis always has to be cool on our show. We don't go for the cheap Elvis joke. We don't go for the, "Oh, he's eating a peanut butter and bacon sandwich" humor. We really tried to give it a new spin and keep it respectful.
Screen Rant: I really appreciated that there were no jokes about Elvis' horrific snack choices.
John Eddie: Yeah, there's none of that. There's no "thank you very much." And Mike can speak to Matthew coming on board; we really weren't looking for an Elvis imitation.
Screen Rant: Tell me about getting Matthew, because he's not even trying to do an Elvis voice, but that's probably for the best!
Mike Arnold: It was certainly one of our goals. At its core, at the center of our show would be an Elvis that was always cool. Being Elvis comes with being cool. And Matthew is beyond perfect because he has that effortless swagger that's just cool by itself! Bringing Matthew's sensibilities, his capabilities, his confidence, his swagger, and then him finding that voice... He worked really hard to find, and to bring to life, what he called "the music of Elvis' voice." To bring that to life culminated in such a unique portrayal of Elvis that just felt right. You're watching it, and you forget you're listening to Matthew because the fit just feels so good. It really helped us put the show together that we wanted to do.
Screen Rant: His voice evokes Elvis at his most raw, stuff like Flaming Star and King Creole, where he was really acting and not just performing like he would on stage.
John Eddie: It's great that you picked those movies, that's so cool. Yeah, absolutely.
Screen Rant: I'm something of a musician. I play drums and can carry a tune, but one of my musical heroes is Ronnie Tutt, and I was shocked that he voiced himself in an episode!
John Eddie: That's really Ronnie acting! It was the last thing he did before he passed. The show follows a Forrest Gump-style timeline. Anything that happens in the world, Elvis is somehow involved in it. But we were also very aware of where Elvis was at that point in his career. The 68' Special era of Elvis is probably the most heroic looking Elvis there is. He's wearing the black leather outfit, he started wearing the jumpsuits with the capes, it's really where he was embracing his karate and his idea of becoming a super hero. We felt that was when he was at his peak of beauty, and cool, and looks, and badass-ness. So that's why we started in '68 and move to the early 70s in Season 1.
Screen Rant: I definitely appreciate what the show does, and what the movie did last year, in shining a light on the early 70s in particular, like his first residency at the International Hotel. It's nice to see this particular era of Elvis getting its due.
Mike Arnold: As John said, it was an era that was fun to tackle. It has so many moments in history that we all know. It gave us a lot of storytelling opportunities, whether it's going to Vegas, or the moon landing, or going to the White House, or the first satellite broadcast concert ever, Aloha from Hawaii. We wanted to take all of those very real moments that Elvis fans know, but others may not know, and make them into our own. That's one of the goals we set out to accomplish.
John Eddie: We had such a big sandbox to play in. We had Elvis' world, where he was at that time, but then whatever was going on in history and pop culture. And as a big Elvis fan, there's... In the first episode, with Charles Manson, Elvis was really on Manson's Kill List. We used that as a springboard for our story. Elvis really did have a monkey. (Laughs) A chimpanzee. Priscilla will correct me. It's a chimp, it's offensive to call them monkeys. But we, to Mike's point, turned him into a coke-snorting, weapons expert, ex-NASA chimp. We based everything, as much as we could, in the real world of Elvis, and in the real world of what was happening in history, and then turned everything on its head to bring it into the world of Agent Elvis.
Screen Rant: Tell me about this amazing cast you assembled. Did you have to convince Priscilla to play herself, or was she always game to play?
Mike Arnold: It was weird. When we first started working on the show, in our original pitch, it starts here, but goes past the time of Elvis' death. There was going to be less interaction with Priscilla. But when we started writing the scripts and asked her, "Hey, would you want to..." Even though she was a creator and so involved, I still had to go to her and say, "Would you be into this?" The episode I wrote is based on when Elvis and Priscilla took LSD at Graceland. That's a real thing that they did. It's in her book. And she's definitely a presence throughout the season.
John Eddie: We were wildly fortunate with the cast, from Priscilla onto everyone else. We were fortunate enough to get Matthew. Then, we were just swinging for the fences every time. We never thought we'd get Don Cheadle to do this, the same way we never thought we would get Matthew! But luckily, we did, and Kaitlin Olsen, and Johnny Knoxville, and Niecy Nash, and Ed Helms, and Jason Mantzoukas and Kieran Culkin, and Christina Hendricks! The list just went on and on.
Everybody that we were fortunate enough to work with is just so accomplished, not just as an actor, but they understood the comedy we were trying to do. We were always amazed at how we would get them into the booth and everything would become elevated. It was better than we ever thought it could be, and that's thanks to the phenomenal cast we have.
Mike Arnold: I think Priscilla's willingness to portray herself escalated once Matthew came on as Elvis. I think she really looked forward to the idea of acting across from Matthew. I think a lot of the cast, once Matthew came on and there's that DNA of 'cool' that Matthew and Elvis both have, and with the craziness and edginess of the project, it attracted people who wanted to be in the orbit of Matthew and Elvis. I think it just lends itself to such a cool cast and fun time. I know Priscilla was over the moon when Matthew came on board as Elvis.
About Agent Elvis
Elvis Presley trades in his jumpsuit for a jet pack when he is covertly inducted into a secret government spy program to battle the dark forces that threaten the country he loves – all while holding down his day job as the King Of Rock And Roll.
The series is the first adult animated project from Sony Pictures Animation, the studio behind "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," and is produced in partnership with Authentic Brands Group and Titmouse. Elvis Presley's iconic look is being brought into animation with the help of Academy Award® nominee Robert Valley and Agent Elvis’ wardrobe is designed by legendary fashion designer John Varvatos.
Agent Elvis is available to stream now on Netflix.