What happens when your best friend reveals she's been keeping one very big secret—and it sends you on the run?
That's the jumping-off point behind ‘Ride or Die’, Prime Video's new action-comedy series premiering this week on the streaming service. Created by Tessa Coates and brought to life by showrunner Matt Miller, the eight-episode adventure pairs sharp humor with globe-trotting plots through lifelong friends Debbie (Octavia Spencer) and Judith (Hannah Waddingham).
In the show, the duo finds themselves on the move across Europe after Judith's hidden life as an international assassin comes crashing to light. Taking that partnership to the next level, not only through action but also through comedy, called for a pairing with sharp chemistry that felt like a long-formed friendship.
“The dynamic to me [with Debbie and Judith] is that it's a believable 20-year friendship that comes with all the knowing of the other person—the unspokenness that you don't need to say anything out loud because you both know it already. A degree of the show lives and dies on whether or not you believe those two have been best friends for 25 years—and I think what is immediately apparent is that you believe it,” explains Coates.
“What I was looking for was the language I have with my own closest and oldest friends, and as soon as you see them on screen together, you buy it. With so many shows, rom-coms, or anything like this: With all the work in the world, if you don't believe in those two, there's no show. And so that was the main thing we were looking for. Then we just got extraordinarily lucky, even before the show had ever been pitched, that both Hannah and Octavia got on board. They were the only two actresses that this role ever went to and they both said, ‘Yes, please,’ on the call.”
That energy of the friendship paired with a show that aims to meld genres is also what pulled in Miller as a showrunner. Plus, there was also the international travel, which the cast and crew got to experience firsthand.
“I love the tone of the show, and I love things that have a little comedy, a little drama, a little action, a little heart. You get to play in all those different sandboxes—that was interesting for me,” Miller notes.
“And also, I loved the idea of doing something big in scope and international. We shot the show entirely in Prague, but it's Prague for all these different countries, and I just think there was something about the scope of it that was incredibly appealing. Plus it's also reminiscent of all the stuff that I loved growing up: It's ‘Midnight Run’, it's ‘True Lies’ and it’s that kind of tone, which isn't really represented on TV right now. “
That ambitious blend of genres and cinematic scale wasn't just something that excited Miller during production—it was also what he hoped audiences would connect with once they finally experienced the series. Judging by the early response, those hopes may already be paying off.
“We screened it in London and it was the first time that anyone that wasn't directly involved in making [it] had seen it. So when you came out of a screening, you're really nervous [to] walk out and into the lobby—with ‘Ride or Die’, there was what I perceived as genuine joy. People felt like it was really fun after they had seen the first two episodes. And I do think that the show goes on like that, and by the end of it, hopefully people have that same kind of feeling… that it felt like a real adventure.”
That sense of fun and exploration was exactly what the creative team set out to achieve, but for creator Tessa Coates, 'Ride or Die' also stands out because of the characters at its center. While the series embraces the action-comedy traditions of the genre, Coates believes its fresh perspective—and the women leading the story—help give it an identity all its own.
“What sets it apart, I think, is that we haven't really seen this sort of show with these sort of people before. We've seen a lot of buddy comedies, [but] I don't know if we've seen one with women of this age,” Coates finishes.
“I don't know if we've seen a female action star doing the things that Judith is doing either—and it's got some really cool original things in it. It knows what it's doing, and it's homaging and referencing and nodding to a lot of the work that's come before it, but hopefully with its own spin on everything.”
'Ride or Die' is now streaming on Prime Video.
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