Almost thirty years after making under-appreciated comedic gem So I Married an Axe Murderer, Mike Myers has spinned a niche idea first mooted in the film into a Netflix series. The Pentaverate, coming to Netflix on May 5, will see Myers playing no less than eight different characters.
So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) saw Myers playing a San Francisco beat poet called Charlie, who begins to suspect that his fiancée Harriet (Nancy Travis) is an axe murderer. One of the many comedic highlights of the film were Charlie’s Scottish parents, played by Brenda Fricker and Myers (again).
When not shouting at Charlie’s brother for having a head that’s too big, Mr. Mackenzie liked to regale Charlie’s best friend Tony (Anthony LaPaglia) with conspiracy theories, chief among them that “it’s a well-known fact that there’s a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world known as The Pentaverate who run everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado known as The Meadows.”
According to Mackenzie, the five members are; “The Queen, The Vatican, The Gettys, The Rothschilds and…Colonel Sanders.” It’s likely that for the new series, the members have been updated to reflect the kind of people more likely to be running the world via secret society nowadays. While we don’t know much as yet, we do know that the series will ask the question; “What if a secret society of five men — AKA The Pentaverate — has been working to influence world events for the greater good since the Black Plague of 1347?”
Just two of Myers’ eight roles include a Canadian journalist tasked with revealing the truth about the society, as well as the society’s highest-ranking member. The show also stars Ken Jeong, Keegan-Michael Key, Debi Mazar and Jennifer Saunders.
You can see the teaser trailer below;
While we wait for more details on The Pentaverate, check out our guide to the best comedy movies.