Major Netflix Show Canceled: No Season 3 for ‘The Recruit’

Owen Hendricks won’t be taking on another mission. Netflix has canceled its Noah Centineo-fronted CIA drama The Recruit after just three seasons.

Colton Dunn, who played Lester Kitchens in the series, announced on social media Wednesday that the series will not be back for Season 3. On Threads, Dunn announced, “The Recruit has been cancelled yall.”

“Such a bummer,” he added. “I’ll share some pics and fun memories on IG but just wanted you to hear it from me. Thanks if you watched. I’m AVAILABLE NOW! Hire me for you tv story!!”

Created by Alexi Hawley, The Recruit followed Centineo’s Owen Hendricks, a fledgling lawyer who begins working for the CIA and soon becomes entangled in international politics. Along with Centineo and Dunn, the series also starred Teo Yoo, Aarti Mann, Fivel Stewart, Kristian Bruun, Kaylah Zander, Maddie Hasson, Angel Parker, and Vondie Curtis-Hall. The series ran for a total of 14 episodes across two seasons, and originally premiered on Netflix in December 2022.

The cancellation comes less than two months after the show dropped its second season in late January. Speaking to PopCulture.com just after the Season 2 premiere, Hawley expressed interest in a third outing.

“I definitely have plans for a third season,” he shared. “Cliffhangers are bold choices, especially in the television landscape. I like the idea of ending the season with a feeling of satisfaction, whereas Season 1 was, which doesn’t mean that there’s not some stuff outstanding going into, hopefully, Season 3. But, yeah, cliffhangers are a lot, and especially in the streaming world, they’re just they’re dangerous because the last thing you wanna do is end up with your audience not seeing what happens next.”

Netflix has not confirmed the show’s cancellation at this time, and nobody else connected to the show, including Hawley and Centineo, has commented on The Recruit’s reported axing. A reason for the cancellation is unclear. The show was overwhelming well received, with Season 2 holding a 92% critics score and 77% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The second season also garnered 5.9 million views in its first four days of streaming and charted in Netflix’s Top 10 series. It also ranked No. 2 on the English-language TV chart, only falling behind The Night Agent Season 2.

Hawley served as showrunner and also executive produced alongside Centineo as well as Hypnotic’s Doug Liman, Gene Klein and David Bartis; Adam Ciralsky (P3 Media) and Charlie Ebersol.

The Recruit Seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on Netflix.