Netflix Renews Popular Series for Season 2

Netflix does not cancel every new show. The streamer renewed The Recruit for a second season, about a month after the first debuted. The spy series stars Noah Centino as a new CIA lawyer. Centino is a favorite among Netflix viewers thanks to his roles in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Sierra Burgess Is a Loser, and The Perfect Date.

The Recruit was created by Alexi Hawley and stars Centino as Owen Hendricks, a lawyer who joins the CIA. His life is changed when Max Meladze (Laura Haddock), a former CIA asset, threatens to reveal her work with the agency to the public to get out of prison for beating a trucker to death. While Hendricks negotiates with Max, he gets himself further intertwined with international politics. Aarti Mann, Colton Dunn, Fivel Stewart, Daniel Quincy Annoh, Kristian Bruun, and Vondie Curtis-Hall round out the main cast. The first two episodes were directed by Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow).

“I know I speak for our entire cast and executive team at eOne and Netflix when I say that we’re thrilled to be returning to The Recruit for a second season,” Centenino told Tudum Thursday. “I’m looking forward to seeing what [showrunner] Alexi Hawley has in store for us all.” The Recruit is produced by eOne, Hypnotic, and Perfectman Pictures.

“I’m thrilled to dive back into the fun, funny, action-packed world of The Recruit,” Hawley told Tudum. “Seeing how invested our audience became in the show’s adventurous take on the spy world has been incredibly rewarding, and I can’t wait to turn it all up to 11 in Season 2.”

The Recruit earned a mixed reception from critics, but Netflix subscribers flocked to it. The series debuted in third place behind Wednesday and Harry & Meghan on the Top 10 English-language shows chart for the week of Dec. 12-18 with 52.3 million hours viewed. The Recruit spent five weeks in the Top 10, dropping out last week.

The spy series was renewed a few days after Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos defended the streamer’s infamous habit of canceling shows very quickly. In a new interview with Bloomberg, Sarandos insisted they have “never canceled” a successful show. “A lot of these shows were well-intended but talk to a very small audience on a very big budget,” he explained. “The key to it is you have to be able to talk to a small audience on a small budget and a large audience at a large budget. If you do that well, you can do that forever.” Sarandos is now serving as co-CEO alongside Greg Peters, as co-founder Reed Hastings announced his departure from the company.