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Will Arnett solves improvised murders with celebrity guests in first trailer for Netflix's 'Murderville'
Murderville premieres on Netflix Thursday, Feb. 3.
We dare you to try and keep a straight face while watching the first trailer for Netflix's Murderville. If some of the most respected comedians and actors on the planet crack up laughing at unexpected jokes, then the rest of us don't stand a chance.
The "police procedural comedy" stars Will Arnett (Arrested Development) in the main role of Detective Terry Seattle, a homicide cop who tries to solve a different murder case each episode with the help of a celebrity guest star. But here's where things get interesting: the guest aren't given a script and have to roll with whatever comedy punches Terry decides to throw their way. By the end of each story, the newcomer must take their best stab (pun intended) at naming the killer.
"Solving crimes is hard," Arnett wrote on Twitter. "Improv comedy is harder." In an Instagram video, he added: "It's a lot of fun. Sometimes they guess write and sometimes they guess wrong."
The revolving door of A-list talent for the debut season includes Conan O'Brien (Conan), Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct), Kumail Nanjiani (Eternals), Marshawn Lynch (formerly of the Seattle Seahawks), and Annie Murphy (Schitt's Creek). Recurring cast members are Haneefah Wood (Chief Rhonda Jenkins), Lilan Bowden (Medical Examiner Amber Kang), and Phillip Smithey (Detective Darren 'Daz' Phillips).
Watch the trailer below:
“I do think people liked the idea that they could come in, they didn’t have to learn any dialogue and they could be themselves and just go for a ride,” Arnett told The Hollywood Reporter when the series was first announced earlier this month. “And I have to give these people credit because it’s freakin’ scary as sh**.” He described the overall premise — borrowed from BBC3's BAFTA-winning Murder in Successville — as "making Law & Order without a script."
The actor serves as an executive producer alongside Krister Johnson (also writer and showrunner), Marc Forman, Jonathan Stern, Peter Principato, Brian Steinberg, Tom Davis, Andy Brereton, and James De Frond. Iain Morris and Brennan Shroff directed the first batch of episodes, working off scripts from Anna Drezen, Chadd Gindin, Craig Rowin, Jack Kukoda, Marina Cockenberg, Kerry O’Neill, Hannah Levy, and Adriana Robles.
All six installments of Murderville premiere on Netflix next Thursday — Feb. 3. “I’d love to do more if it works and people respond to it,” Arnett said of potential follow-up seasons. “And if people kind of shrug and go, ‘Yeah, fine,’ then great, we had a lot of fun.”
