The Recruit is ending.
Netflix has canceled the Noah Centineo-froned drama series after two seasons. It comes less than six weeks after its second season premiered at the end of January.
The news was revealed by Colton Dunn, who played Lester Kitchens, a colleague of Centineo’s, on social media. Netflix confirmed the cancelation.
The spy series, which premiered in December 2022, followed Owen Hedricks (Centineo), a CIA lawyer who becomes involved in international conflicts with dangerous parties after an asset tries to expose her relationship to the agency.
It was created by Alexi Hawley and produced by Lionsgate (after its acquisition of eOne) and Hypnotic.
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The Recruit was one of many shows that were hampered by the pandemic with a two-year gap between seasons. It’s somewhat of a surprise given that the show made it to number two on Nielsen’s streaming charts and number two on Netflix’s own charts in the week of its release with 5.9M views and 31.8M hours viewed. It also grew in its second week with 6.1M views and 33M hours viewed, although couldn’t compete with the second season of The Night Agent.
Season two also only consisted of six episodes, rather than eight like in its first season.
Hawley told Deadline in January that he was feeling good about a third season.
“We’re waiting for Netflix to officially do their thing with it. There’s a lot of goodwill inside Netflix towards the show and towards Noah; I think they very much feel like Noah is a homegrown star, which he is. So, I’m feeling super positive about it, as positive as you can feel in this town at this time,” he said.
Season one centered around Owen Hendricks (Centineo), a young CIA lawyer whose first week on the job turns upside down when he discovers a threatening letter by former asset Max Meladze (Laura Haddock), who plans to expose the agency unless they exonerate her of a serious crime. Owen quickly becomes entangled in a dangerous and often absurd world of power politics and mischievous players, as he travels the world in hopes of completing his assignment and making a mark at the CIA.
Season two saw Hendricks abducted by his former asset Max’s daughter Nichka (Maddie Hasson) and watch Nichka shoot her mom dead before she almost did the same to him. He was saved by CIA operative Dawn (Angel Parker) and her team only to barely escape being killed by her over his knowledge of her fake assets scheme. The two reached a truce and made a pact of mutual destruction, which Dawn soon broke, spending the season trying to kill Owen as well as Lester who also discovered her secret.
[SPOILER ALERT] In a finale shocker, Dawn was killed in a knife fight with Nichka as both were after Owen — Dawn had taken an assignment by the head of CIA to kill Owen, as well as his companion, South Korean National Intelligence Service agent Jang Kyun (Teo Yoo), in exchange for a promotion, and Nichka had promised the American to the Russian security agency FSB for money. Lester protested to Dawn’s mission but didn’t stop her.
Fivel Stewart, Vondie Curtis Hall, Kristian Bruun, Aarti Mann, Daniel Quincy Annoh also starred, while Kaylah Zander, Maddie Hasson, Angel Parker and Teo Yoo starred in season two. James Purefoy was a guest star in season two, while Nathan Fillion played CIA director Alton West.
In an interview with Deadline. The Recruit creator/executive producer Alexi Hawley speaks about the shorter Season 2 order of 6 episodes vs. 8 for Season 1 and reveals Nichka’s backstory and other elements that had to be cut for time with the reduced episode count.
The Recruit debuted on December 16 and spent five weeks on the Netflix TV Global Top 10 (English), reaching the Top 10 in 88 countries.
Centineo will return as executive producer and reprise his role as Owen Hendricks. As told to Tudum.com: “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.”
Hawley will return as showrunner with Hypnotic’s Doug Liman, Gene Klein and David Bartis; Adam Ciralsky (P3 Media) and Charlie Ebersol also returning as Executive Producers.
The post ‘The Recruit’ Canceled After 2 Seasons At Netflix appeared first on Deadline.
