A good secret agent needs to be aware of their environment at all times — the entrances, exits, false walls, eyelines. So do good television storytellers. In the panel video above, “Ponies” co-creator and showrunner David Iserson, co-creator and director Susanna Fogel, production designer Sara K White, and lead actors Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson (who is up for a 2026 Gotham TV Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance in a Comedy Series for her performance) gathered to talk about bringing some life, color, and comedy to the spy genre while still keeping Season 1 of the Peacock series grounded in its 1970s Moscow setting.
As written by Iserson and the writing team, “Ponies” refuses to look or act like an audience’s expectations for a spy thriller set behind the Iron Curtain. Fogel and her fellow directors Viet Nguyen and Ally Pankiw are playful with zooms and split-screens, but never lose sight of their true marks — the characters. Their directing philosophy was to navigate sequences in the ways that make the characters’ emotions most visually apparent.
Production designer Sara K White took advantage of some of the visual grandeur of the architecture in Budapest to stand in for the Soviet capital, sometimes “running ahead of the wrecking ball,” according to White, and shooting in locations on the verge of being demolished. The production design makes the world that the CIA’s newest American agents Bea (Clarke) and Twila (Richardson) need to navigate as complicated and interesting as they are.
“The sets were just next level,” Clarke said. “You do your work. We have all these wonderful discussions with our beautiful showrunners and with our writers and our directors, and you’re getting to grips with the character. You know what shoes you’re wearing and what jacket you’re wearing. You’ve gone through it in your home, and you’re up late, learning your lines. And then you walk on set, and you’re like, ‘Oh. It’s done for me. They did it already. It’s here.’”
“When something’s so good and so right, it just transports you,” Richardson agreed. “You can almost take it for granted as an actor, but it is so crucial. That’s why auditioning sucks, because we don’t have [the production design and the costumes]. You have to make it all up in your brain. But when it’s real and tangible and so accurate and right, it just makes it so much easier and more fun.”
In the video above, watch the “Ponies” creative team talk about the tactile details that helped make the world of the show feel real, vibrant, and alive.
“Ponies” is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. It is now streaming exclusively on Peacock.
IndieWire partnered with Universal Studio Group for USG University, a series of panels celebrating the outstanding artistry and artisans behind the 2025–2026 television season across NBCUniversal’s portfolio of shows. USG University, a Universal Studio Group program, is presented in partnership with the Motion Picture & Television Fund.
