The Recruit. Noah Centineo as Owen Hendricks in episode 101 of The Recruit. Cr. Philippe Bossé/Netflix © 2022
The Recruit is returning for a second season on Netflix but with a couple less episodes. Filming wrapped up earlier in 2024, and the show was originally confirmed for a 2024 return but now it’s up in the air. Here’s everything we know about season 2 of The Recruit.
For those who missed it, Noah Centineo stars as Owen Hendricks in The Recruit. Hendricks is a lawyer thrust into a conspiracy plot involving the CIA. All eight episodes premiered on Netflix on December 16th, 2022.
The show has an excellent pedigree, with Alexi Hawley serving as its creator. Hawley is best known for creating hits for network television, including Castle, The Rookie, The Following, and Body of Proof. Laura Haddock, Aarti Mann, Colton Dunn, and Fivel Stewart starred alongside Centineo (known for Netflix’s To All The Boys).
Let’s now dig into season 2 of The Recruit:
Has Netflix Renewed The Recruit for a Season 2?
Official Renewal Status: Renewed
Ahead of the official renewal, we heard positive rumblings from Canada production sources that they plan on moving forward with a season 2 a month after launch. Netflix officially confirmed season 2 on January 26th, 2023.
In a statement on the renewal, Alexi Hawley said:
“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 2.”
Centineo will return as Executive Producer and reprise his role as Owen Hendricks. Hawley will return as Showrunner with Hypnotic’s Doug Liman, Gene Klein, and David Bartis; Adam Ciralsky (P3 Media) and Charlie Ebersol will also return as Executive Producers.
Ahead of the renewal, Alexi Crawley implied that conversations had taken place or that a blueprint for the future was in place. In a Collider interview, Hawley talked about his attitude going into season 1 about future iterations, 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.”
Vondie Curtis-Hall as Walter Nyland, Noah Centineo as Owen Hendricks – Cr. Philippe Bossé/Netflix © 2022
We should also note that since the launch of The Recruit, Noah Centineo has launched a production company called Arkhum Productions. Centineo was also at one stage tapped for another big Netflix project in the form of Masters of the Universe. That project, however, is no longer at Netflix.
How well did The Recruit perform on Netflix?
After a month of the show being on Netflix, we got a pretty good picture of how well The Recruit was performing on Netflix.
How well was The Recruit received?
Let’s break down the review scores for the show thus far (correct 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
How popular was The Recruit on Netflix?
Let’s first look at the hourly data released by Netflix’s top 10 site. The show has featured in the global top 10s for five weeks following its launch. In total, the show has picked up 228.26 million hours watched globally.
| Week Period | Hours Viewed(M) | Rank | Week in Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 11th, 2022 to December 18th, 2022 | 52,300,000 | 3 | 1 |
| December 18th, 2022 to December 25th, 2022 | 95,590,000 (+83%) | 3 | 2 |
| December 25th, 2022 to January 1st, 2023 | 43,360,000 (-55%) | 5 | 3 |
| January 1st, 2023 to January 8th, 2023 | 23,580,000 (-46%) | 6 | 4 |
| January 8th, 2023 to January 15th, 2023 | 13,430,000 (-43%) | 10 | 5 |
As we’ve spoken about before, one possible flaw of the show is that in week 3, it dropped 55%. We’ve observed shows with a drop of over 50% sometimes have difficulty getting renewed.
How well was the opening launch regarding CVE (completed viewing equivalents)? The show slightly outperformed The Lincoln Lawyer initially but was just behind The Sandman and Vikings: Valhalla.
Opening weekend CVE for The Recruit on Netflix
Next is Nielsen data, which tracks viewing minutes in the United States on connected devices. The Recruit ranked for five weeks in their rankings, picking up 73.40 million hours between December 12th, 2022, and January 15th, 2023. That suggests at least 32% of viewing of The Recruit was done so in the United States.
FlixPatrol data, which looks at the daily raw Netflix Top 10s, suggests the show peaked in the fourth and fifth day post-release in the top 10s globally but held nicely since over the festive period. The show remained in the top 10 worldwide until one month after its release. Data shows that the show performs best in the United States, South Africa, Eastern Europe, the Nordics, Canada, and Australia.
FlixPatrol Data for The Recruit on Netflix
When will The Recruit season 2 be released on Netflix? Where is the show in production?
As part of the renewal, Netflix confirmed that the series would return in 2024, but as we’ll cover below, it’s more likely that the series will return in 2025.
The Recruit season 2 is set to begin filming on January 4th, 2024, and run for over three months, with the original scheduled wrap date set for March 21st, 2024. It wasn’t until mid April-2024 when the cameras finished rolling
Filming is primarily taking place in the Canadian province of British Columbia. According to a report from Figurants, some of the filming for season 2 is set to take place outside of Canada this season, too. Three days of filming are taking place in the northern region of Spain called Basque Country.
Filming did finish up on schedule on March 21st with much of the cast and crew posting photos of their final day on set. You can find an excellent collection of clippings and BTS stuff on season 2 via the fan account therecruitseries_netflix on Instagram.
Production pictures courtesy of therecruitseries_netflix on Instagram
Filming for the second season was significantly delayed, which is worth noting. In April 2023, we learned that The Recruit season 2 was originally due to begin filming in Vancouver, BC, starting in June 2023. Production was pushed back to August 1st, 2023, and run through October 20th, 2023.
Speaking to CNN during the strikes, showrunner Alexi Hawley told anchor Jake Tapper, “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…”
The Recruit hits the picket line at Universal pic.twitter.com/h2funXZ0LL
— Alexi Hawley (@AlexiHawley) June 3, 2023
The Recruit Season 2 Likely Releasing on Netflix in 2025
With all of those delays, the initial 2024 release window looks quite optimistic, and Netflix left the show out of its February 1st slate reveal, where it confirmed 90+ new and returning shows for the year. Deadline included the show among the titles pushed to 2025, but The Lincoln Lawyer was on that list, which is coming back before the close of 2024.
Directors for The Recruit Season 2
What’s on Netflix can confirm two directors on board to direct in the second season.
Firstly, as we revealed in January 2024, Julian Holmes, who directed episodes 7 and 8 of season 1, is scheduled to return to the director’s chair in season 2.
Making his The Recruit debut for season 2 is John Hyams, who served as showrunner on Netflix’s Black Summer series.
Showrunner Alexi Hawley will also direct the last batch of episode in the new season.
Pictured: Julian Holmes and John Hyams
What to Expect from The Recruit Season 2
Let’s quickly recap the events of season 1.
In episode 8, titled W.T.F.I.O.H. (it stands for Who the F*ck Is Owen Hendricks?), the mission to get Max home to Russia continues, and just as things seem to be coming to a close, complications arise. It also saw the clashing of Owen’s personal and professional life.
Season 1 concludes with a big twist: Karolina shoots Max, but is she dead? That will undoubtedly be the cornerstone question that gets answered in season 2.
The ending then sees Owen reaching out to Hannah to meet up abroad, which concludes the series.
Picture: Netflix
Per Netflix, the second season will pick up from last season’s cliffhanger ending, which saw Owen and Max captured and their lives endangered.
Episode Count Reduced from Eight to Six for Season 2
We can confirm that the series will reduce its total number of episodes from eight to six in season 2.
- Episode 201 – Written by: Alexi Hawley
- Episode 202 – Written by: Bryan Oh
- Episode 203 – Written by: Hadi Nicholas Deeb
- Episode 204 – Written by: Sue Chung
- Episode 205 – Written by: Maya Goldsmith & Neda Davarpanah
- Episode 206 – Written by: Alexi Hawley
The episode title order is yet to be revealed but we can give you them in alphabetical order:
- A.T.N.W.H.Y.P.A.B.H.
- H.H.I.I.T.K.A.L
- I.D.W.T.B.D.I.
- O.S.Y.M.G
- W.S.T.W.T.P.
- Y.R.A.A.C.O.T.D.O.P
New and Returning Cast Members for The Recruit Season 2
Picture via Netflix
In December 2023, it was announced that Teo Yoo had joined the second season’s cast. Per Netflix, “Yoo will play a clever and driven South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) agent, highly skilled with a subversive sense of humor and willing to go to any lengths to protect those he cares about.”
Yoo has over two dozen credits, being involved with the 2023 movie Past Lives, 2022’s Decision to Leave, and 2018’s Leto. He also starred in the series Love to Hate You.
Yoo, speaking to THR at the Spirit Awards 2024, told the outlet that the new season is a “more Korean-centric, spy action thriller comedy,” adding that “it’s a lot of fun.”
Cast Grid for The Recruit season 2
In late January 2024 – Netflix rounded out the cast of the second season with the following cast members:
- James Purefoy (Rome) as Olive Bonner-Jones, a charming, rich British businessman living in a world between legal and illegal.
- Brooke Smith (Grey’s Anatomy) as Marcy Potter, a seasoned and serious CIA Counter Espionage Group officer leading a crucial investigation.
- Devika Bhise (The Rookie: Feds) as Juno Marsh, an eager CIA Counter Espionage Group officer with a buttoned-up persona and a bit of a wild side.
- Felix Solis (The Rookie: Feds) as Tom Wallace, a senior diplomat in the State Department tasked with bringing American hostages home.
- Young-Ah Kim (Juvenile Justice) as Grace, a savvy senior intelligence officer and single mother under pressure to uncover CIA activities in her country.
- Shin Do-hyun (Hospital Playlist) as Yoo Jin Lee, a free-spirited young woman with a childhood connection to Owen.
- Sanghee Lee (All of Us Are Dead) as Nan Hee, a passionate and nurturing Korean aide worker with a sly sense of humor.
- Omar Maskati (Good Sam) as Jae King, a jet-setting rich kid with a charming and affable personality.
- Alana Hawley Purvis (Range Roads) as Amanda Fern, a stern and by-the-book CIA Station Chief in Seoul resistant to taking instruction from a CIA operative.
- Andrew Woo as Duri
- Amro Majzoub as Mateen
- Kim Young-ah as Grace
We’ll update you on all things The Recruit as and when we learn more. Until then, let us know in the comments below if you’re looking forward to seeing season 2 of The Recruit on Netflix.
