‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ Brings In Anna Ouyang Moench As New Showrunner As Season 2 Eyes Start Date

Playwright and screenwriter Anna Ouyang Moench (Beef, Severance) has been tapped as showrunner, writer, and executive producer for the second season of Prime Video’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Moebch succeeds series co-creator Francesca Sloane who served as showrunner for Season 1.

As Deadline reported in September, Sloane, who co-created and executive produces Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Donald Glover, had been set to return as showrunner but as Season 2 was put on hold over cast issues amid her overall deal with Amazon MGM Studios coming to an end, Sloane moved to HBO for an overall deal and will write the opening episode of Big Little Lies Season 3.

At least some of Season 2 had been written before the pause button was hit, and Anora‘s Mark Eydelshteyn and Yellowjackets‘ Sophie Thatcher were cast as the new installment’s eponymous Mr. and Mrs. Smith in December 2024 and February 2025, respectively.

With Glover, who headlined Season 1 alongside Maya Erskine, still very much involved creatively, continuity is expected, with Moench not likely to make wholesale changes. Still, she will put her stamp on the show while sorting out the entanglements the series has gone through over the past year and half, since Mr. & Mrs. Smith was renewed in May 2024, three months after its February 2024 debut.

With Moench on board, series co-producers New Regency and Amazon MGM Studios will move to set a new production start date for Season 2 in the coming months taking into account availability of talent. According to sources, Eydelshteyn and Thatcher are still attached to the project, subject to availability in light of the delay.

It is unclear whether the actors approached — but not formally signed — for guest starring/recurring roles over the summer, including Lily-Rose Depp, Francesca Scorsese, Levon Hawke, Wagner Moura and Gael Garcia Bernal, will still be re-approached.

A spring-summer 2026 production start date would help Mr. & Mrs. Smith stay within the 18-month window to keep the $22.4M tax credit from the series received on March 31, 2025 to relocate to Los Angeles for Season 2 from New York where the first installment was filmed.

Moench served as a staff writer on Season 1 Apple TV’s Severance and was upped to supervising producer for Season 2. She also served as writer/executive producer on Season 2 of Netflix’s award-winning limited series Beef.

“Anna is a phenomenal storyteller with an incredible ability to balance character-driven drama, sharp humor, and emotional depth,” said Peter Friedlander, Global Head of Television, Amazon MGM Studios who oversaw Beef in his previous top programming role at Netflix. “Her work on Beef and Severance speaks for itself, and we’re thrilled to have her at the helm of Mr. and Mrs. Smith Season 2 as she builds on the series’ compelling world and pushes it into exciting new territory for our global Prime Video customers.”

Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a reimagining of the 2005 New Regency film of the same name. Season 1 followed two lonely strangers (Glover, Maya Erskine) who have to pose as a married couple as they both begin new careers as spies, taking on new aliases, Mr. and Mrs. John and Jane Smith. The season ended with John and Jane getting into a gunfight, leaving it unclear whether they survive. Glover and Sloane executive produce with Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan, Natalie Lehmann, Michael Schaefer, Stephen Glover, Anthony Katagas and Fam Udeorji.

Moench is developing Patrick Radden Keefe’s The Snakehead with A24 and Onyx and an original series titled Fortune with Creative Engine with Fifth Season. Her most recent play titled Your Local Theater Presents: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, Again, had a sold out run at La Jolla Playhouse in 2024. Moench is repped by WME, Heroes & Villains and Jackoway Austen.