Cocaine Bear Is A Secret Reunion For The Americans

The 2023 horror-comedy movie Cocaine Bear marks the surprising reunion of three actors from FX’s hit spy series The Americans, which ended in 2018.

WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for Cocaine Bear!Cocaine Bear’s cast brings back three actors from The Americans, making for an unofficial and gory reunion. Directed by Elizabeth Banks, Cocaine Bear features an all-star cast with beloved Hollywood veterans, blockbuster actors, and rising up-and-comers tackling the younger characters. The late Ray Liotta stars as drug smuggler Syd, Solo: A Star Wars Story’s Alden Ehrenreich portrays his grieving son Eddie, Emmy nominee Keri Russell plays worried mom Sari, Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson is an animal rights activist, Game of Thrones’ Kristofer Hivju plays an unsuspecting hiker, and The Florida Project’s Brooklynn Prince portrays Sari’s mischievous young daughter Dee Dee.

In addition to starring three Star Wars actors, Cocaine Bear’s cast features another curious connection. On the surface, the two projects seem to have nothing to do with one another outside their 1980s settings, but Cocaine Bear shares a surprising overlap with FX’s hit spy series The Americans. The Emmy-winning TV show, which aired from 2013 until 2018, followed two Soviet KGB intelligence officers, Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), posing as an American couple in Virginia during the Cold War. After the TV show came to an end five years ago, three prominent The Americans actors are finally reuniting on-screen for the horror-comedy movie Cocaine Bear.

Related: When Will Cocaine Bear Release On Streaming?

Cocaine Bear Reunited The Americans Actors Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys & Margo Martindale

The Americans actors Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, and Margo Martindale all play memorable roles in Cocaine Bear, with two of their characters being brutally killed. Sari actress Keri Russell played The Americans’ main character Elizabeth Jennings, a role for which she received three Emmy nominations. Russell’s The Americans co-star and real-life husband Matthew Rhys, who won an Emmy for his performance as spy Philip Jennings in 2018, is also briefly featured in Cocaine Bear. While he and Russell don’t share any scenes, Rhys portrays Cocaine Bear’s real-life drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton, who dies after dropping drugs from his plane into the woods during the film’s opening sequence.

Margo Martindale, who played the Emmy-winning role of Claudia in The Americans, stars in the 2023 horror-comedy Cocaine Bear as Ranger Liz. Martindale does have an on-screen reunion in Cocaine Bear with her former The Americans co-star Russell, as their characters Liz and Sari interact when the latter asks about finding her daughter Dee Dee. However, this reunion doesn’t last long, as Ranger Liz is killed in Cocaine Bear’s wild ambulance scene.

Keri Russell & Matthew Rhys Are Collaborating Again After Cocaine Bear

The Americans reunions aren’t stopping anytime soon, as husband-and-wife duo Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys are set to collaborate again after Cocaine Bear. The actors will both appear in the upcoming Apple TV anthology series Extrapolations, which is Russell’s first return to drama TV since the end of The Americans. Given the proven on-screen chemistry between the actors and their continued collaborations with Cocaine Bear and Extrapolations after The Americans, Russell and Rhys are apt to keep gracing the screen together in future projects.

Next: The Americans Series Finale: How The Show’s Cold War Ends