Finding himself entangled in the perilous world of international espionage “when a former asset threatens to expose agency secrets,” Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) grabs the attention of Netflix’s new political crime thriller, The Recruit.
From his gushy-butterfly-inducing romantic role in rom-coms like To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before to his steaming role of a rookie lawyer, the fans of Noah Centineo have gone haywire. The Recruit has gained worldwide popularity with all eight episodes, to such an extent that the show is renewed for a second season on Netflix.
Here’s the full scoop on The Recruit Season 2.
Has Netflix renewed The Recruit for a second season?
The Recruit was officially renewed by Netflix for a second season on January 26, 2023. Speaking to Tudum, the show’s creator, Alexi Hawley, made a statement on the renewal, saying:
“I’m thrilled to dive back into the fun, funny, action-packed world of The Recruit. Seeing how invested our audience became in the show’s adventurous take on the spy world and Noah’s turn as Owen has been incredibly rewarding, and I can’t wait to turn it all up to “11” in Season Two.”
In the second season, Centineo will not be reprising his role as Owen Hendricks but will also serve as the executive producer of the show along with Adam Ciralsky and Charlie Ebersol.
Upon the series’ renewal, Centineo said, “I know I speak for our entire cast and executive team at eOne and Netflix when I say that we are thrilled to be returning to The Recruit for a second season. I’m looking forward to seeing what Alexi Hawley has in store for us all.”
In conversation with Collider, Hawley expresses his opinions about the future endeavors of the show, saying:
“I know things about where I would want to take it, and where I’d want to go with it. I mean obviously, you hope for success, but as you could see with that ending, I didn’t plan for failure because I feel like in this day and age you just have to be bold, you have to be dramatic, to the expense of everything else. And you can’t worry about Season 2’s, or Season 3’s, or beyond. You have to go, “What’s the best version of this story right now?” And trust that people will come to it. And then you’ll get another shot at it.”
Hawley will serve as the showrunner for the second season as well, along with Doug Liman, Gene Klein, and David Bartis.
What is the performance of The Recruit Season 1?
The Recruit has been successful in harnessing positive reviews, which are mentioned below, as of January 20th, 2023:
- IMDb User Score: 7.5
- RottenTomatoes Critics Score: 67% (was 75% at launch)
- RottenTomatoes Audience Score: 86%
- Metacritic: 59/100
Following the tradition of every other Crawley show, The Recruit, too, has not only met the expectations of the viewers but also surpassed it extraordinarily, amassing incredible popularity so far. Based on the data accumulated in the first two weeks of the show’s release, the show gained 147.89 million hours between December 11th to December 25th.
Per FlixPatrol data, which is responsible for determining the Netflix Top 10s, the show peaked in its first three days in the top 10s worldwide. As per the data, the show is also seen performing the best in the United States, Europe, the Nordics, Canada, and Australia.TelevisionStats.com reports the show to be the fourth biggest show in the world so far.
What to expect from The Recruit Season 2?
*Spoiler alert*
Season one finale, titled “W.T.F.I.O.H.” (an acronym for Who the F*ck is Owen Henricks?) interweaves a fabric of complications as the mission to get Max home to Russia continues. Amidst all this chaos, Owen’s personal life seems to be playing cat-and-mouse with his professional life.
Season 2 will presumably unravel the big twist with which its predecessor concluded: Karolina shooting Max, but will she be dead? In the end, we see Owen reaching out to Hannah so they can meet up abroad.
In conversation with Collider, creator Alexi Hawley addressed the possible tangent that the future seasons of The Recruit could take, saying, “I know things about where I would want to take it, and where I’d want to go with it. I mean obviously, you hope for success, but as you could see with that ending, I didn’t plan for failure because I feel like in this day and age you just have to be bold, you have to be dramatic, to the expense of everything else.”
He further added, “And you can’t worry about season two, or season three, or beyond. You have to go, ‘What’s the best version of this story right now?’ And trust that people will come to it. And then you’ll get another shot at it.”
While speaking to Variety, Hawley explicated his ideas in detail. He said, “You have to always try and make the most dramatic choice even if it’s hard, and even if it does leave you with a cliffhanger — even if it does turn the story 180 degrees. Yes, you can worry about what happens after, but at the same time, I think you have to be bold, especially in this day and age where there are 9,000 shows.”
According to RadioTimes, Noah Centineo will certainly return in the second season, along with Aarti Mann, Colton Dunn and Fivel Stewart. They speculate that “Owen Hendricks would be thrown into another high-stakes mission, although this time he could be somewhat more prepared for the experience.”
In an interview with IOL, Noah Centineo explored more on the subject of being inspired by action-heavy and hi-tech spy franchises, saying, “If we were trying to do Bourne [Identity], it would have been sick to have all those gadgets and gizmos. But we’re just doing a show about a kid that wants to be a lawyer that gets thrown into the world of espionage, and I loved it for what it was.”
Who are the cast members of The Recruit Season 2?
The Recruit can’t have a second season without the recruit, Owen Hendricks, reprised by Noah Centineo. In addition to him, we expect the following cast members to also reprise their respective roles in the second season:
- Aarti Mann as Violet
- Colton Dunn as Lester
- Fivel Stewart as Hannah
- Daniel Quincy Annoh as Terence
- Kristian Bruun as Janus Ferber
- Vondie Curtis-Hall as Walter Nyland
Laura Haddock’s Max Meladze was murdered by Karolina, who was apparently her daughter, in the first season. As of now, it becomes difficult to presume whether she will reprise her role or not in the second season.
When can we expect The Recruit season 2 to release on Netflix?
Netflix confirmed that the series would make its return in 2024. However, apart from this, the official streamer did not indulge in further specifics. In April 2023, it was announced that the second season would reportedly begin filming in Vancouver, BC, starting in June 2023.
Be that as it may, that plan is far from materializing owing to the Director’s Guide of Canada, which reports that production will begin on August 1, 2023, and is scheduled to wrap by October 20, 2023. Julian Holmes, who directed episodes 7 and 8 in The Recruit season 1, is also set to serve as the director in season 2.
Exacerbating the restless anticipation is the WGA strike, which began on May 1, 2023. As of now, we are not sure where the show was in pre-production when the writers’ strike began. But we know one thing for certain: Until the demands of the writers are not met, the strike will continue, and the production dates will be pushed back even further.
In a conversation with CNN’s anchor Jake Tapper, showrunner Alexi Hawley shared his insights regarding the strikes, saying:
“For the last 50 plus years, TV has been a training ground for writers, through writer’s room and being able to go to set and learn how to produce episodes. That’s being stripped away. The streaming shows have these mini-rooms that are completely divorced from production, so there’s a generation of writers not learning how to make television, and that’s really what this fight is about…”
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