‘The Pentaverate’: Mike Myers’s Thoughts on ‘Unfalsifiable’ Secret Societies
Conspiracy theories and secret societies have been around for centuries. The Illuminati is one of the most discussed topics and often debated over its existence. Mike Myers’s Netflix series The Pentaverate takes on a new secret society intending to influence the world. The inspiration behind the secret society is from Myers’s 1993 movie So, I Married an Axe Murderer and his own longtime obsession with them.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Pentaverate.]
‘The Pentaverate’ explores secret organizations with a twist of comedy
Myers wrote and produced Netflix’s new limited comedy series, The Pentaverate. In the series, a Canadian reporter named Ken Scarborough (Myers) is on the brink of losing his job. He needs a breaking story and falls into the conspiracy behind the Pentaverate.
He travels to New York with camerawoman Reilly (Lydia West) and a conspiracy enthusiast named Anthony Lansdowne (Myers). With their help, he plans to expose the Pentaverate but finds himself in a plot to change the world for the worst. The Pentaverate advertises themselves as a secret society that began during the Black Plague of 1347.
When the Catholic church used the plague to their advantage as a warning from God, five men exposed them. They revealed it was caused by fleas on rats. The five men became heretics and formed the secret society to influence the world from disaster. The Pentaverate is not meant to be evil in any way. Like most secret organizations, the Pentaverate influence the world’s most powerful leaders and institutions.
The inspiration behind The Pentaverate comes from Myers’s own personal fascination with conspiracies and a movie.
Mike Myers credits his interest with secret societies to his mother and how it influenced ‘The Pentaverate’
Myers cannot confirm or deny his involvement in a secret society or existence, according to his interview with ABC Audio. But the comedy actor has had a long-time love and interest in the subject matter since childhood, thanks to his mother.
“I’ve been obsessed with secret societies my whole life. My mom was in the Royal Air Force and had a top security clearance, so I knew that there were secrets in the world,” explained the actor. Myers’s obsession with secret societies goes far deeper and has a unanimous take on the subject that helped inspire The Pentaverate.
“It is unfalsifiable. You can not prove that they do not exist. And the unfalsifiableness of it is what makes it so fun. I would say about 25 years ago, secret societies were being talked about a lot, then it went away. In the last five years, they have come to the forefront and I wanted to talk about it in the best possible way – which is in a silly way,” said Myers to GameRant.
Myers saw an opportunity to talk about the reality of conspiracy theories with satire and comedy. Being a fan of the Cold War movie Dr. Strangelove, Myers felt silliness “is the best delivery system to talk about something serious.” The Pentaverate uses multiple details from popular conspiracies like the Vatican, the Illuminati, and its supposed elite members.
‘The Pentaverate’ pokes fun at conspiracies by using well-known unproven facts
As Myers has explained, the existence of secret societies is so absurd to a point they must be real. For years, the not-so-secret Illuminati has become public knowledge. Societies like the Illuminati have become mainstream media. While no one has been able to prove its existence, people inherently believe it is real. Myers uses this advantage in The Pentaverate.
In the series, Lord Lordington, the society leader, makes fun that the Illuminati exists and Jay-Z and Beyoncé are indeed members. Vox reported there are many connections between celebrities and the Illuminati. Largely due to the power they hold over the masses.
Myers also uses common “evidence” about secret organizations like folding an American bill to form a new image. The Pentaverate also mentions supposed members of these organizations like world leaders, the Queen, and more.
