Perhaps the greatest merit of Amazon Prime’s new series Ride or Die is also the simplest: putting Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer at the center of the screen and then getting out of their way.

Both had done something similar before, even though they were officially cast in supporting roles. Octavia won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Help, in a performance that few people who watched the film would ever consider secondary. Hannah won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Rebecca Welton in Ted Lasso, another character who grew far beyond the function she initially seemed destined to have in a series led by Jason Sudeikis. Both received their biggest awards as “supporting actresses” after, in practice, stealing part of the stories they were supposedly supporting.

In Ride or Die, they finally do not have to steal anything. The series already belongs to them. And thank goodness, because Hannah and Octavia are precisely what transforms a plot that, without them, would be little more than a collection of nearly every cliché the espionage genre has accumulated over the past few decades.

There is the secret international organization of assassins, complete with its mysterious leader and its own set of rules. There are professional killers traumatized by childhoods marked by abandonment and rejection. There is the agent who has hidden her true identity from the person closest to her for decades. There is the civilian who is accidentally dragged into that world, and despite having no training whatsoever, reveals an unlikely combination of intelligence, courage, and an almost supernatural amount of luck. There are conspiracies, chases, twists, betrayals, romances, deaths, and humor amidst danger, with secrets buried within other secrets.

We have seen all of this before.

What we have not seen nearly as often is Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer doing all of it together at 51 and 56, respectively, without their age being treated as an obstacle, a joke, or an explanation for why they are there. On the contrary, both look absolutely gorgeous, sexy, funny, and completely in command of the screen. Spencer summed up the intention perfectly when she said that women in their 50s remain just as capable, beautiful, and sexy as they ever were: they are simply getting older.

Remarkably, this can still feel revolutionary in 2026.

Hannah Waddingham Has Found Her Action Heroine

Hannah, in particular, is a delightful revelation as an action star.

And to think that a huge portion of the audience first knew her almost unrecognizably as the terrifying Septa Unella in Game of Thrones, responsible for ringing that unforgettable “shame” bell behind Cersei Lannister. Then came Rebecca Welton in Ted Lasso, revealing not only an excellent dramatic actress but an extraordinary comic presence and a magnetism the series never tried to hide.

Ride or Die brings all of that together.

Her Judith can be threatening, vulnerable, sophisticated, ridiculous, sexy, and genuinely funny without any one of those qualities canceling out the others. More importantly, we believe she is a woman capable of killing someone.

Waddingham performed much of her own physical work and took the training seriously. She said she wanted audiences to realize that it really was her in the action sequences and spoke with particular pride about the bathroom fight she performs while wearing a gold dress. In another interview, she explained that Judith could not fight hesitantly: we are talking about a legendary assassin with decades of experience, so her movements needed to look fast and instinctive.

It worked. After so many years in which Helen Mirren seemed to occupy, almost by herself, the throne of the mature woman who could walk into an action movie, pick up a gun, and immediately make everyone believe she knew exactly what she was doing, Hannah Waddingham is practically snatching the crown from her head. Without giving up being funny. Or sexy. Or feminine.

That matters because Hollywood spent decades confusing female strength with the need to erase anything that might look feminine. Judith does not need to do that.

Octavia Spencer Never Needed to Be “Just the Friend,” Either

On the other side is Octavia Spencer, doing something perhaps even more difficult.

Debbie begins as the “civilian” in the duo. In less capable hands, she would simply be the character whose job is to ask questions so the script can explain to the audience what is happening, stumble through chase scenes, and provide comic relief. Octavia never allows that to happen.

Debbie is funny without becoming a caricature, intelligent without suddenly acquiring superpowers, and vulnerable without turning into dead weight. More than that, Octavia seems extraordinarily comfortable as a leading lady.

She also looks beautiful, sexy, and reveals a comic streak that Hollywood has not always allowed her to explore with this much freedom. There is something especially pleasurable about watching her react to the escalating absurdity of the situation because Spencer has that rare command of comic timing in which a slightly delayed look can improve an entire scene.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that she joined the project so quickly.

Who Is Whiptail in Ride or Die? The Full Truth About Judith

The origin of Ride or Die helps explain why the two actresses fit together so perfectly. Octavia Spencer was approached by what was then Skydance through her development deal with the studio and heard the idea created by Tessa Coates. She accepted almost immediately. According to Spencer, among the hundreds of pitches she had heard throughout her career, this one won her over because it placed two women “of a certain age,” intelligent and capable, at the center of action and comedy without abandoning the emotional heart of the story.

And there was an interesting coincidence: Spencer and the producers independently arrived at the same name for Judith.

Hannah Waddingham.

When the three of them met over Zoom, Hannah listened to the whole story and became so delighted that she asked who would be lucky enough to play Judith opposite Octavia. She thought perhaps she had been invited to suggest someone for the role. The answer was basically: you.

She accepted before the project had even gone through the traditional routes involving agents and negotiations. Sometimes chemistry simply cannot be manufactured.

The Real Romance of Ride or Die

It is precisely that chemistry that saves Ride or Die from its own clichés.

Because, deep down, the organization of assassins hardly matters. It hardly matters which character is lying, who will betray whom, or what the next revelation will be. There are effective surprises throughout the eight episodes, some more predictable than others, and the series knows how to balance comedy, action, drama, and genuinely emotional moments.

But we are watching Judith and Debbie, and the great romance of Ride or Die is not romantic at all, but the friendship between two women. And perhaps that is the only truly subversive element in a series built on such familiar formulas.

Men have had their buddy movies for decades. They can cross continents, fight armies, sacrifice careers, families, and even their own lives for another man, and that loyalty is transformed into cinematic mythology. With women, friendship almost always has to share space with husbands, boyfriends, children, professional rivalry, or some form of romantic competition.

Here, the romances exist, but they remain peripheral, and their relationship is the love story. Octavia Spencer defines that central bond as a non-romantic but familial love, one that includes conflict and rupture. She and Waddingham insisted that Judith and Debbie needed to be able to confront each other because a friendship in which two women simply support one another unconditionally would become too sweet and unrealistic. They need to be capable of disappointing one another so that choosing to remain together actually means something.

That is precisely what gives weight to all the absurdity.

Beneath the gunfire, assassinations, and chases, Ride or Die asks something far more universal: how far would we go for the person who truly knows us, and what would happen if we discovered that perhaps we had never really known them completely at all?

A Europe Built Around Them

Created by Tessa Coates, the series has Matt Miller as showrunner, while Peyton Reed, director of the Ant-Man films, helmed the first two episodes. Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer are also executive producers, which helps explain why the perspective on these protagonists feels as though it comes from within rather than from someone observing women of their age as some kind of exotic novelty.

Production took place extensively in the Czech Republic between January and July 2025, using Prague and several other regions to construct the pair’s European journey. Locations included Prague’s historic center, Karlovy Vary, castles, churches, quarries, and studio sets, in a production ambitious enough to make the adventure feel far more geographically expansive than it actually was.

The cast also includes Bill Nighy, Ed Skrein, Sylvia Hoeks, Jamie Parker, Calam Lynch, and Savannah Steyn, but no one ever seriously challenges the certainty that we are there for the two women at the center.

And Will There Be a Second Season?

For now, Prime Video has not officially announced a second season. That does not mean very much yet: all eight episodes were released at once on July 15, 2026, so the series has only been available for a few days, and the platform will still need to evaluate viewership, completion rates, and overall reception before deciding its future.

Without getting into spoilers, the finale certainly does not close every door and leaves room for the story to continue. The series has also found something far more valuable than any conspiracy when it comes to sustaining future episodes: a duo we genuinely want to see again.

Perhaps that is exactly why a possible second season does not need a bigger conspiracy, more villains, or a story inflated into something more grandiose. Ride or Die has already found what many series spend years searching for: characters whose company alone is enough to justify continuing to watch.

When the final credits roll, the real curiosity is not necessarily about Judith and Debbie’s next mission, but about what else might happen when Hannah Waddingham and Octavia Spencer share the screen.

Everything else can change.

That is the one thing the series cannot afford to lose.