This king’s about to fight for his country.
Every once in a while, man accomplishes the impossible. All it takes is someone with a dream. Because when man dreams, he can change the world.
—Elvis Presley
Agent Elvis is a 2023 adult animated action comedy series focusing on a fictional version of Elvis Presley. The series was created by Presley's widow, Priscilla Presley, alongside rock musician John Eddie, and produced by Sony Pictures Animation and Titmouse.
Matthew McConaughey voices the King himself as the series follows his attempts to balance his legacy as a rock and roll legend with his newfound career as a government secret agent.
The series premiered on Netflix on March 17th, 2023. It was then cancelled, leaving it at one season.
We can't go on together... on suspicious tropes...
- The '70s: This show is set around the early 1970s.
- Action Girl:
- CeCe Ryder is Elvis' partner in the TCB, and a full-time agent who is capable of kicking ass.
- Priscilla Presley also takes on a group of mooks by herself to protect Elvis later in the series though it's subverted as she was going through a hallucination like her husband was due to them both ingesting experimental LSD.
- Actor IS the Title Character: According to the teaser, "Academy Award Winner Matthew McConaughey is Agent Elvis."
- Advertising by Association: "From Sony Pictures Animation, the studio behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," the teaser declares.
- Badass Cape: This being Elvis, many episodes feature him in outfits that have capes. He also works as a government agent when he isn't a rock-and-roll musician, which means he kicks a lot of ass in this show.
- Been There, Shaped History:
- The last time the TCB held a company retreat at a beach, the Bay of Pigs Invasion happened.
- Elvis and Bobby Ray apparently played a role in George Lucas going on to create Star Wars.
- The Commander is revealed to be "Deep Throat", the federal agent who leaked Nixon's illegal activities to the press. And that's not even getting into how he was responsible for the rise, fall and deaths of countless prominent American figures due to their TCB projects not panning out the way he wanted.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: The series is about legendary rockstar Elvis Presley becoming a government spy for the TCB. They also have Howard Hughes on their pay roll, and their past agents include Marilyn Monroe and Benjamin Franklin (who harnessed electricity to invent electircal torture).
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Played for Black Comedy. Despite being a chimp, Scatter fools around with human hookers quite frequently, and surprisingly, nobody seems to think it's all that depraved. Later we learn that Scatter got kicked out of NASA, and he made money this way to get by.
- Big Damn Heroes: The trailer has Bobby Ray showing up in a chopper as Elvis is besieged by a gang of mooks, shouting a Pre-Mortem One-Liner before taking the mooks out.
- Bittersweet Ending: What the series ends on, due to its cancellation after one season. Elvis and his team manage to successfully prevent Wolf's plan from going into effect, saving the whole world in the process. However, Wolf (and by extension all of Malus) is still at large, and will continue to try and destroy Elvis and his legacy however he can. Not only that, but due to the plane-turned-rocket not having a proper heat shield due to Bobby Ray not having enough time to put one on, Elvis chooses to sacrifice himself as a human heat shield to ensure his friends can survive. While his ultimate fate is up in the air, The Commander is revealed to have clones of him at the ready just in case he does die.
- Bling-Bling-BANG!: Elvis' weapon of choice is a gold-plated .45 Colt, which is seen frequently in the show.
- Boom, Headshot!: In the seventh episode, Elvis shoots a laser at a goon using Howard's multipurpose tracking device; the camera pans out to reveal, in gory detail, that the laser tore a hole clean through the goon's head, obliterating his eyes and nose while exposing the brain matter inside. The goon's two companions are understandably horrified.
- Cult: The first episode has Elvis fight the infamous Manson Family.
- Destination Defenestration:
- In the teaser, Elvis gets into a fight with a man outside, ending with Elvis kicking the man straight into a glass window.
- The trailer shows two instances: the first has Elvis tackling another man through a window, with both of them falling onto the roof of a car outside. The second has Elvis himself jumping out a window and making a dive.
- Flipping the Bird: Scatter does this with both hands at a casino table in the second episode, "F*ck You, Vegas".
- The Ghost: Elvis' infamous manager, Colonel Tom Parker, is brought up a grand total of twice in the season and never makes an in-person appearance despite his prevalence in the real Elvis' life.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Scatter the chimp has a long, vertical scar running across his right eye. While he's one of the good guys, he's also one of Elvis' more problematic allies, getting into various antics like hiring hookers, and prematurely shooting a man Elvis was interrogating, and at another point vomiting messily all over a casino table after drinking. He also often ignores his owner's orders not to misbehave despite Elvis' best efforts (to Elvis' endless frustrations).
- Hartman Hips: Both CeCe Ryder and Bertie have wide hips that line up with their shoulders.
- Helicopter Blender: In the fourth episode, Bobby Ray takes out a gang of mooks with the propeller of a chopper to save Elvis, who was besieged by said gang.Bobby Ray: Time to mow the fucking lawn!
- Historical Badass Upgrade: This happens to Elvis himself, as the show revolves around him becoming a government spy. Not only does he handle various weapons, but he's also a competent fighter on par with CeCe despite being a rookie by comparison. He was also a part-time drug-busting vigilante prior to his recruitment, which gives him additional experience in combat.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: Unlike the real Elvis, who got addicted to drugs and eventually died because of it, this Elvis is completely sober and moonlighted as a part-time drug-busting vigilante prior to being recruited as a government spy. The real-life Elvis also had a history of infidelity, while this Elvis remains loyal to Priscilla, though later episodes allude to this by showing she isn't happy with him constantly signing autographs and taking pictures with his legions of female fans, if only because it distracts him from their increasingly distant relationship.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Robert Goulet and Elvis absolutely hate each other on the show to the extent that Goulet willingly helps the main villain tear apart the world just to ruin Elvis' reputation. In real life, they were quite cordial with each other, outside of a single incident where Elvis angrily shot a TV that was showing Goulet singing, which has been mostly attributed to Elvis' drug abuse rather than any actual beef between the two.
- Hookers and Blow: At one point, Elvis makes a point to defy this when he orders Bobby Ray to stay in the car with Scatter so the chimp wouldn't go off buying "coked-up hookers", implying it happened before.Elvis Presley: You boys stay with the car... which means not buyin' coked-up hookers (points at Scatter while Bobby Ray looks at Scatter questioningly) he said really clearly this time.
- Hospital Hottie: At one point, Elvis plays the role of a rather attractive doctor treating three nuns for a movie, a Mythology Gag to one of Elvis' real-life films, Change of Habit.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Bertie compares Elvis to Marvin Gaye to CeCe while he's walking right behind them, to his chagrin.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: The teaser ends with Elvis beating information out of a man. However, it goes horribly wrong when Scatter, his pet chimp, prematurely shoots the man after grossly misinterpreting Elvis' words.Elvis: Scatter's gonna pull that trigger- (Bang, blood splatter) Aw, dammit Scatter, I was gonna say if he didn't talk!
Scatter: (Ooks and shrugs) - Jet Pack: Elvis is seen flying around with one of these just before the teaser smashes to the title. The trailer also has Elvis flying in a jet-pack to a volcano for one of his missions.
- Lost in Translation: The Latin American Spanish dub uses "pig" as a derogatory term for police; while the term is still an insult used in many contexts, this is not one of them. So anytime it's used as an insult, said people are just calling others "dirty", "fat", "ugly", or other childish insults instead.
- Living a Double Life: In the public's eyes, Elvis is the King of Rock and Roll, as well as a loving father and husband. But what they don't know is that he's also a government spy defending the country. The series revolves around him trying to balance his two jobs.
- Male Frontal Nudity: In the fourth episode, Elvis encounters a completely nude male concert goer with his wang completely exposed on-screen.
- Moon-Landing Hoax: Fully-embraced complete with Stanley Kubrick being the one who directed it, but with the twist that it was Elvis who appeared in the broadcast due to Neil Armstrong accidentally getting high on cocaine.
- Mushroom Samba: Episode 8 has Elvis and Priscilla tripping on LSD for most of the episode during a home invasion. Needless to say, while fighting the mooks besieging his house, Elvis ends up beholding some truly bizarre images that tie into his past as a TCB test subject. Then it turns out that his house was never invaded and he hallucinated most of the episode.
- Mythology Gag: This show runs off of it:
- Elvis works for TCB, The Central Bureau. TCB also stood for Elvis's motto, "Taking Care of Business".
- Elvis's plane has a thunderbolt on the logo. Elvis was a big fan of Captain Marvel (specifically Captain Marvel Jr.), whose insignia is a thunderbolt.
- Blue Hawaii, one of Elvis' films post-U.S. Army, appears on a clapperboard as well as Bobby Ray's shirt.
- Elvis is seen in a doctor's coat alongside three nuns, which is in reference to his film Change of Habit.
- CeCe Ryder is named after Elvis's song "See See Rider".
- The end of the first episode has Elvis do his 1968 Comeback Special.
- The third episode features a director voiced by Baz Luhrmann, director of Elvis (2022).
- No Badass to His Valet: This is Elvis' relationship with his mother-figure, Bertie. While Bertie helps Elvis run his day-to-day life while he's busy moonlighting as a drug-busting vigilante and, later, a government agent, she isn't afraid to speak her mind about him, either. At one point, Bertie describes Elvis to CeCe as "Marvin Gaye for white people", knowing that Elvis himself is walking close behind them.
- No OSHA Compliance: TCB HQ is littered with safety hazards, including blast doors that instantly crush any employees unfortunate enough to stand where they're closing and a giant bottomless pit with no guard rails.
- Non-Human Sidekick: Elvis's trouble-making pet chimp Scatter, as seen in the trailers.
- Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: This is the Commander's response to Elvis' refusal to take a mission against President Richard Nixon.Elvis Presley: I'm not stealin' from the President.
The Commander: It's not stealing, if it's not his. Same way, it's not murder if you do it with your eyes closed. Now go! - Oh, Crap!: The trailer has two.
- Elvis fires a laser straight through a goon's head in the seventh episode, and the gory aftermath leaves the other two goons pretty shaken.
- Elvis himself gets wide-eyed when a rocket launcher misfire ends up destroying his jet plane, though his response is rather calm.
- "Open!" Says Me: Elvis likes kicking open doors with a glossy handgun in his hand.
- The Pen Is Mightier: Elvis spends fifth episode wondering if the pen he got from CeCe's purse is a gadget, which CeCe doesn't know herself. It turns out it is just a completely normal pen, but he is still able to throw it at an attacker with enough force that it pierces the man's jugular.
- Playing Card Motifs: One poster has the Commander hold up a pack of playing cards with Elvis's team on them
. Elvis is the King (naturally) of Spades, Bertie and CeCe are the Queens of Hearts and Diamonds, respectively, and Bobby Ray and Scatter are the Jokers. - The Pornomancer: Elvis is described as "Marvin Gaye for white people!" by Bertie, his mother-figure.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Bobby Ray shouts, "Time to mow the fucking lawn!" before taking out a gang of mooks with the propeller of a helicopter in the trailer.
- Sassy Black Woman: Bertie is Elvis' mother-figure who helps run his day-to-day life while he's off working for the government. She's also pretty snarky, fearlessly mouthing off to both Scatter, the Commander, and Elvis himself.
- Shout-Out:
- There's a Nick Fury-style spymaster who Elvis takes orders from.
- Scatter pukes out a license plate that reads "007-981", the same Hooper and Brody retrieve from the tiger shark's belly in Jaws.
- When CeCe attempts to work out which Penis sculpture is the Commanders, spoofs of the "Zach Galifianakis Math" scene from The Hangover, and the chess-on-the-ceiling scene from Netflix's own The Queen's Gambit (with penises replacing the chess pieces) play out.
- The Spymaster: The Commander is the head of the Central Bureau as well as a Nick Fury-style spymaster who both Elvis and CeCe take orders from.
- This Is Gonna Suck: While his face is much more expressive, Elvis responds to a rocket launcher misfire in this manner:Elvis Presley: (watching his plane go up in flames) Uh... well, this is gonna leave a mark.
- Threatening Shark: In the trailer, both Elvis and CeCe end up facing a shark.
- Truth in Television:
- Elvis actually was ordained a federal agent by the President, though he wasn't also into espionage like this version, but drugs and narcotics investigation, something which he also mentions in a late episode.
- Elvis also did own a pet chimpanzee named Scatter who later became problematic and rowdy to both family and friends alike, though the chimp took on booze and not both booze cocaine.
- Turbine Blender: In the trailer, a scuffle leads to Elvis and his attacker falling out of an airplane during mid-flight. While Elvis manages to grab the open doorway in time, his attacker isn't so lucky, exploding upon hitting the jet turbine.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: Priscilla Presley appears As Herself, and she is shown beating up a bunch of mooks all by herself just to protect Elvis, her lover.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Scatter vomits rather messily all over a casino table on-screen after one drink too many, to the casino-goers' disgust when it gets on them.
- What the Hell, Hero?: At one point in the teaser, a piece of dialogue involves Elvis getting called out for his apparent recklessness.CeCe Ryder: Have you ever heard of not trying to kill us?!
Elvis Presley: I was wingin' it! - White-Dwarf Starlet: Zigzagged. Elvis was still a household name, but they make aware how he was dwarfed by bigger names at the time like The Beatles and The Doors.
