Emilia Clarke’s New Spy Series Just Arrived on Peacock

Nearly seven years after she last appeared on screen as Daenerys Targaryen, Emilia Clarke has traded in Westeros for Moscow for her new spy thriller now on Peacock. All eight episodes of the anticipated show just arrived on the NBCUniversal streamer, notching Clarke her latest post-Game of Thrones credit after appearances in projects like the animated film The Amazing Maurice, the Marvel series Secret Invasion, and Netflix’s The Twits.

That show is Ponies, a new Cold War spy thriller created by Susanna Fogel and David Iserson. The series is set in 1977 and stars Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson as two PONIES, or “persons of no interest,” who work anonymously as secretaries at the American Embassy in Moscow. When their husbands die under mysterious circumstances in the Soviet Union, they are thrust into the CIA and must dig into the vast conspiracy their husbands were killed for. Ponies Season 1 consists of eight episodes, scheduled to release on Peacock on January 15th.

Ponies Is the Next Great Step in Emilia Clarke’s Post-Game of Thrones Career

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Clarke hasn’t disappeared from the limelight in the years since the genre-defining and pop culture phenomenon Game of Thrones wrapped its eight-season run, but Ponies is already poised to be her strongest outing yet since the iconic show. The series currently holds a 91% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it her highest-rated project in her post-GOT era. It’s still too early for the series to earn an audience rating, but critics are praising the show’s fresh take on the spy genre that shifts focus from the male-dominated narratives common in the genre to two ordinary, overlooked women, with Clarke and Richardson delivering wildly endearing performances.

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Collider’s Tania Hussain dubbed the series “one of the most impressive new shows of 2026” and Decider’s Hope Sloop said Ponies is “exactly the kind of hilarious and heart-racing thriller the world needs now.” In his review for ScreenAnarchy, critic Peter Martin wrote that Ponies is “a refreshing addition to the spy series canon” that “quickly takes flight, initially due to the combustible chemistry between Emilia Clarke … and Haley Lou Richardson … which soon develops into a trustworthy friendship that feels entirely authentic.” Ponies is also earning high praise for its prioritization of character and psychological tension over spectacle and well-executed stylish atmosphere.

Will There Be a Ponies Season 2?

That is still up in the air. Given just how new the show is, it’s still too early for a renewal or cancellation decision, and numerous factors, including viewership, will go into making the decision. Ponies’ early success with critics is a good sign, though, but fans will ultimately have to wait a bit longer to find out if Peacock hands the show a Season 2 renewal.

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