‘Sympathy’ for the novel: Oh, Downey Jr. star in Thanh Nguyen novel-turned-series

When a person immigrates to the United States of America, they come with their own set of experiences, for better or — as in the case of HBO’s newest series — for worse. The new seven-episode limited series “The Sympathizer” begins Sunday, April 14, on HBO and HBO’s streaming service, Max.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Vietnamese-American professor and author

Viet Thanh Nguyen, “The Sympathizer” follows a young, French-Vietnamese man (played by Hoa Xuande, “Cowboy Bebop”), who had been placed in South Vietnam for the duration of the Vietnam War, working as a plant.

As the war approaches its end in the mid-1970s, the man (hereafter referred to as “the Captain”) lands in the United States and begins to live his life as a refugee in Los Angeles. Little do those around him know, the Captain has been tasked with gaining information on the U.S. government and reporting his findings back home to the Communist-propelled Viet Cong.

“I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces,” says the Captain (also the narrator) at the outset of the 2015 novel and series’ source material. “Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds, ... able to see any issue from both sides. Sometimes I flatter myself that this is a talent ... [but] I wonder if what I have should even be called talent. After all, a talent is something you use, not something that uses you. The talent you cannot not use, the talent that possesses you — that is a hazard.”

As illustrated by the main character in the very first lines of Nguyen’s bestselling novel, duality is at the heart of “The Sympathizer.” Whether tackling the intricate moral quandaries that separate right from wrong, the complex and imperfect biases of political lefts and rights, or struggling with one’s own parentage (as is, for the Captain, a hated French father and an adored Vietnamese mother), “The Sympathizer” always straddles the line between, at least, two possible outcomes.

But if all this talk of dichotomy has you seeing double, don’t fret. You may just be seeing the same thing — or person, as the case would have it — twice. In fact, Marvel Cinematic Universe star Robert Downey Jr. (“Iron Man,” 2008) plays not just two roles, but four — so you could be seeing double twice!

Downey Jr., who is recognizable in at least one of his four roles, often stars in heavy prosthetics and costuming alongside up-and-comer Xuande, whose credits to date included mostly Vietnamese film and TV content until his 2021 stint as Lin in Netflix’s live-action adaptation of “Cowboy Bebop.” While very little is shared about any of Downey Jr.’s characters, a quick look at the official teasers reveals that he is largely involved in nearly every step of the well-crafted plot.

“The Sympathizer” also stars Duy Nguyen (“The Night Logan Woke Up”), Scott Ly (“A Tourist’s Guide to Love,” 2023), Tom Dang (“Z Nation”), VyVy Nguyen (“Dogs in Space”), Kieu Chinh (“The Joy Luck Club,” 1993) and Kayli Tran (“Ambulance,” 2022).