We Finally Have A First Look At Peacock's MacGruber Series
"MacGruber" started as a sketch on "Saturday Night Live" in the late '00s. A direct parody of the popular ABC action series "MacGyver," which ran from the mid-'80s to the early '90s, the sketches focused on Will Forte's MacGruber, an action hero-type who is eventually revealed to be the son of Richard Dean Anderson's iconic Angus MacGyver.
In every "SNL" sketch, MacGruber is often tasked with disarming a dangerous device. However, unlike his father, he doesn't apply critical thinking skills or the ability to create Rube Goldberg devices out of random detritus to hash out a lifesaving solution to whatever problem he faces. Instead, MacGruber usually becomes incredibly distracted by his messy and complicated personal life and ends up blowing himself, his partner (played by Maya Rudolph until she left "SNL" in 2007, then Kristen Wiig from 2008 onward), and anyone in the surrounding area sky-high.
The sketches resulted in a 2010 feature film which made over $9 million (per Box Office Mojo), and soon, a Peacock-exclusive TV series. The show was first slated to come out in 2020 (per Deadline) but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic (per Variety Insight). This week, fans finally got a glimpse of the new "MacGruber" thanks to a new trailer that provides an update on the hapless hero in the 10-plus years since we last saw him.
MacGruber is the same foul-mouthed disaster we know and love
The "MacGruber" Peacock show takes place more than a decade after the events of the 2010 "MacGruber" movie. Fans of that film will be delighted, as it appears the series will be as fearlessly foulmouthed and uninhibited as the film.
Taking the form of a television news interview, the new trailer tells us that MacGruber is in jail for "killing one dude" over a decade ago. This is Val Kilmer's Dieter Von Cunth, whom MacGruber threw to his death at his wedding to Vicki (Kristen Wiig) in the final scene of "MacGruber." Mac is outraged by this turn of events, countering that he'd just saved an entire American city from destruction. His furious courtroom behavior has not endeared him to the legal system. Worse, he and Vicki have separated in the wake of his conviction. But he remains defiant, vowing his revenge upon his enemies.
Per Variety, MacGruber will indeed get the chance to ply his violent trade for America once more, as his sentence is commuted so he can track down his former arch-nemesis Brigadier Commander Enos Queeth (Billy Zane). MacGruber will have to call on Vicki for help, as well as former ally Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe). Timothy V. Murphy will also be back as Constantine Bach, with whom Mac has previously bumped heads. Also appearing in the show are Joseph Lee Anderson as Major Harold Kernst, Sam Elliott as Perry, and Laurence Fishburne as General Barrett Fasoose.
Fans will get to find out if he's successful when all eight episodes of "MacGruber" are released to Peacock on December 16.