Peacock has ordered Assassins, a competition series built on the campus stealth game where players “eliminate” targets with NERF guns, water pistols, or plastic spoons. Scarlett Johansson is on board as executive producer, alongside B17 Entertainment co-founders Brien Meagher and Rhett Bachner. B17 sits inside Sony Pictures Television.
The format
From arrival, each player is assigned one target to take out before the season ends. The twist is that every hunter is also the hunted, with shifting alliances and deception deciding who survives. A host has not yet been named.
Why it matters
The order is not random. Peacock is already home to The Traitors, the Emmy-winning social-deduction hit hosted by Alan Cumming that turned Mafia-style lying into appointment viewing. Assassins gives the streamer a second format in a lane it knows how to sell: unscripted, low on set-up, heavy on strategy.
There is a marketing advantage in the source material. Assassin is played in schools worldwide, so a large part of the audience already understands the rules. A streamer spends less time explaining a format when viewers arrive with the mechanics already in their head.
The choice also shows where unscripted economics are heading: recognisable social games with built-in rules travel cheaply across markets and age groups, and they generate conflict without expensive stunts. Peacock’s challenge will be differentiation.
What we know so far
- Order: straight-to-series at Peacock, no host announced.
- Producers: Scarlett Johansson, Brien Meagher, Rhett Bachner.
- IP: the real-life Assassin game, most often played with NERF or water pistols.
- Adjacent hit: The Traitors, Emmy-winning, also on Peacock.
What to watch
Johansson is ramping up as a producer beyond film — she was recently announced on an upcoming comedy from Colin Jost and Danny Chun, a project made outside the studio system and financed with brand deals. That broader slate matters for buyers tracking talent-led packages.
If Assassins keeps the game’s real-world props, brand integration opportunities write themselves, but neither Peacock nor the producers have confirmed any commercial tie-ins. The next signal for buyers is casting: celebrities, as The Traitors sometimes uses, or everyday players in the spirit of the schoolyard game.
Source: Variety
