What Is Peacock’s PONIES, Starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson, About?
If you're thinking about diving into Peacock's new thriller series, PONIES, but have some questions, look no further.
There's no horsing around here: PONIES may just end up being your new favorite show.
The Peacock spy thriller stars Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and Haley Lu Richardson (The White Lotus) in groovy 1970s costumes, running from danger all over Moscow and beyond. In a twist from other spy series, when the show starts, Bea (Clarke) and Twila (Richardson) aren't spies at all — but soon take up CIA operative assignments.
The trailer for the series is full of danger and hijinks that seem only fitting for the bravest of secret agents. So how do these two ladies find themselves gathering intel on the KGB, and why is the show called PONIES? Find out below!
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What is the plot of PONIES?
As the series starts, Bea and Twila are two Americans living in Moscow and officially meet for the first time in Episode 1. Their husbands are CIA agents who are stationed in the Russian city.
Bea and Twila are told that their husbands have died together in a plane crash, and the women are sent back to America. Not happy with their new lives and not getting the answers they wanted about what happened to their husbands, they ask if they can become CIA operatives, insisting that no one in the KGB would suspect their involvement since they're women. They initially join other CIA wives as embassy secretaries, then gradually take on more and more spy work.
All about Bea and Twila on PONIES
While Bea and Twila are both in the situation of recently being told that their husband have died, in other ways, they're polar opposites. As Clarke described the characters in a Peacock featurette, they're "the missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that come together and form this perfect whole."
"Everything that Bea isn't, Twila is, and everything that Twila isn't, Bea is," she continued. "Twila drinks wine, Bea gets uptight, Twila's loud and colorful, Bea is more demure."
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What does PONIES mean in the Peacock series?
On the show, PONI stands for Person of No Interest. Most have likely heard the term Person of Interest, which describes someone deemed worth following and paying attention to. Bea and Twila's husbands were Persons of Interest, but the wives — now widows — can fly under the radar as PONIES since no one suspects them of anything.
RELATED: How Many Episodes Does Peacock's PONIES Have?
Who else stars in PONIES besides Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and Haley Lu Richardson?
British stage and screen star Adrian Lester plays Dane, Bea and Twila's CIA boss. Artjom Gilz, who was born in the Soviet Union in 1987, plays Andrei, a KGB agent who takes an interest in Bea.
Comedian Vic Michaelis portrays Cheryl, a somewhat judgmental fellow embassy wife, while Nicholas Podany plays her husband Ray, a mid-level CIA analyst. And Petro Ninovskyi portrays Sasha, who works on top-secret Soviet technology and becomes close with Bea.
The series premieres Thursday, January 15, 2026, with all eight episodes dropping at once, only on Peacock.
