Brendan Fraser’s Overlooked Spy Thriller Adaptation Finds New Life As A Global Streaming Hit

Published Sep 29, 2026, 4:37 PM EDT Grant Hermanns is a TV News Editor, Interview Host and Reviewer for ScreenRant, having joined the team in early 2021. He got his start in the industry with Moviepilot, followed by working at ComingSoon.net. When not indulging in his love of film/TV, Grant is making his way through his gaming backlog and exploring the world of Dungeons & Dragons with friends. As he's in the midst of his long-awaited return as Rick O'Connell, an overlooked Brendan Fraser thriller is back as a streaming hit. The past few years have proven to be some of Fraser's biggest and best of his acting career, particularly with his Oscar-winning turn in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale. He subsequently followed it up by co-starring in Martin Scorsese's Oscar-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon adaptation, sparking more Oscar buzz with his dramedy Rental Family and finally setting a Mummy 4 return, and as filming gets underway, he's adding a new feather to his streaming success cap. Based on James Grady's 1974 thriller novel and its 1975 film adaptation, Condor revolved around Joe Turner, a rising young CIA agent who develops a successful algorithm to monitor and detect terrorist activity in the country, pointing him to a dangerous conspiracy involving his own government and a deadly pneumonic plague. Max Irons led the cast of the spy thriller as Joe while Fraser co-starred as Nathan Fowler, a covert operative seemingly leading the charge on the terrorist operation. Also starring Oscar winner William Hurt, The Old Man's Leem Lubany, Chicago Med's Mae Barber and Oscar nominee Bob Balaban, Condor swiftly scored rave reviews from critics, nearly netting the same acclaim as Robert Redford's original with its 87% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. After a shift from Audience to Epix for its second season, the series didn't get the same level of visibility as its predecessor, but still was generally well-received. Fraser's Condor Is Quickly Gaining Steam Internationally Now, some six years after the show last aired, Condor is quickly finding new life on streaming. At the time of writing, FlixPatrol, the spy thriller series began showing on MGM+'s global Top 10 in multiple countries on September 23 and continues to climb, currently situated in the No. 10 position on the overall charts, while climbing to No. 5 in the United Kingdom and No. 7 in Spain. It's certainly not the first time that Condor has enjoyed a resurgence on streaming platforms, helped in part by the fact that, in the United States, the show is available on more than just MGM+, as it is also able to watch on Philo and FuboTV. Most recently, Fraser's show saw a steady climb in Summer 2025, while Fraser himself continues to enjoy success on streaming with everything from The Mummy movies to his World War II drama Pressure. Why Didn't Condor Return For A Third Season? While one of the more notable names in the show's original cast, Fraser didn't return for Condor season 2 after his character met his end toward the end of season 1. Under threat of having his involvement exposed by one of his collaborators, Fowler not only killed his collaborator and their girlfriend, but ultimately turned the gun on himself as well. Having seemingly left behind the spy world after stopping the threat in season 1, Condor season 2 still followed Joe as he was pulled back into the fold after learning that his uncle had supposedly committed suicide and finds himself pulled into an investigation regarding a CIA mole. More so than its predecessor, the second season ended on a more closed note for its characters, though still saw Joe properly joining the CIA, leaving the door open for more stories regarding him. Interestingly, at one point, reports had swirled about Condor season 3 being greenlit, but nothing ever seemingly came of the plans for the spy thriller's return. While never officially addressed by those involved, the most likely explanation for its quiet cancellation is the various changes made to Epix, namely its rebranding as MGM+ following Amazon's acquisition of the studio. As such, they may have felt the show was not as much of a priority as the other projects already in the works or ongoing. Even still, that doesn't entirely mean that Condor couldn't return at some point in the future. The fact that the spy thriller continues to find new life on streaming years after season 2 ended, and the likes of Apple TV's Slow Horses and Paramount+'s The Agency showcase the genre's ongoing popularity, a proper surge to the top could give MGM+ the boost of confidence needed to move ahead with season 3. Release Date 2018 - 2020-00-00