Joanne Froggatt Joins Guy Ritchie's New Paramount+ Series with Helen Mirren

It was early October 2024 when Deadline first reported that Guy Ritchie had signed on to a new project at Showtime, which would stream on Paramount+ with Showtime. Referred to as The Associate, the film would be a crime thriller, and Deadline had heard that Pierce Brosnan (James Bond), Helen Mirren (The Queen), and Tom Hardy (Wuthering Heights) were in negotiations to star. So it was a bit of a surprise when Variety announced Guy Ritchie had cast Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey) in a crime thriller series for Showtime, which was currently without a title.

Once it was ascertained that these two projects were, in fact, the same, things made a little more sense. Moreover, The Associate was always a working title (more than one outlet accidentally called it "The Associates") because Ritchie decided to move away from the show's original premise, The Donovans, which was, you guessed it, a spinoff of Showtime's Ray Donovan, set across the pond. 

Though Ritchie is the type of director who likes doing five projects at once (he also has Young Sherlock, The Gentlemen Season 2, and the film Wife & Dog in various stages of production), three projects on Paramount+ seemed unlikely; it made far more sense they were all the same. Of course, this must all be taken with a grain of salt. Though projects in Showtime (or Paramount+ with Showtime, if we must call it that) are expected to survive the coming transition when Skydance takes over the company next year, by the time this project arrives, it may wind up someplace very different.

Here's the series' logline, which is from before the name was officially ditched:

The Associate is an electrifying, new global crime series centered around two warring families based in London whose enterprises stretch all corners of the globe and the fiercely loyal ‘fixer’ charged with protecting one of them at all costs.

Hardy will star as Harry Da Souza, a professional conciliator on behalf of the Harrigan family; Brosnan and Mirren play Conrad and Maeve Harrigan, the head of a very successful Irish crime family based in London and Harry’s bosses. Froggatt has been cast as Harry's wife, Jan Da Souza, but she is only one of the new additions to the cast. The rest of the co-stars joining the series include Paddy Considine (House of the Dragon) as the eldest Harrigan son, Kevin; Lara Pulver (Sherlock) play's Kevin's wife, Bella Harrigan; and Anson Boon (Pistol) is Eddie Harrigan, Kevin and Bella's rebellious son.

Ronan Bennett (Top Boy) penned all episodes, with Ritchie slated to helm all installments. Both serve as executive producers along with Hardy; the rest of the executive team includes Keith Cox, Nina L. Diaz, David C. Glasser, Jez Butterworth, Kris Thykier, Ivan Atkinson, Hardy, Dean Baker, Ron Burkle, David Hutkin, and Bob Yari.

Filming for the now-untitled series is underway in London, with an expected premiere sometime in late 2025.