On January 30, 2025, Netflix’s espionage thriller The Recruit finally returned for its highly-anticipated second season after two years’ wait. After season 1’s shocking finale, season 2 follows CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo) as he tries to get out trouble at the Agency by jumping into another graymail case. (Graymail is the CIA version of blackmail, where someone with government secrets threatens to spill them unless the Agency helps them out.) This time, the graymailer is Jang Kyun (Teo Yoo), a Korean intelligence officer whose wife has been taken hostage.
For its second installment, The Recruit is riding the Korean wave, with new cast members from the world of K-dramas, and a thrilling new plot that takes Owen from D.C. to Seoul to Qatar to Russia and back again. (Someone get the guy a travel neck pillow.) Now that the six-episode season is out, fans are wondering whether Owen and co. will be back for another globe-trotting case. Read on for everything we know about a possible The Recruit season 3 so far, including where the show could go next after the season 2 finale.
Is ‘The Recruit’ renewed for season 3?
As of season 2’s release, The Recruit has not been renewed for season 3, but creator Alexi Hawley is feeling great about the show’s chances.
“We’re waiting for Netflix to officially do their thing with it,” Hawley said, speaking to Deadline following the release of season 2. “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.”
Fans can be on the lookout for news on the show’s future over the next few weeks, as Netflix often decides on their series’ fate after the first viewership numbers come in.
Jang Kyun Kim (Teo Yoo) and Owen Hendricks (Noah Centineo).
(Image credit: Ricardo Hubbs/Netflix)
How many episodes would there be in ‘The Recruit’ season 3?
Without a renewal, it’s also unknown whether a future season would return to The Recruit‘s original eight-episode length after season 2 received a shortened six episodes.
When would ‘The Recruit’ season 3 come out?
It’s hard to guess when new episodes of The Recruit could arrive on Netflix. Season 1 premiered in December 2022, months before the 2023 Hollywood strikes. In an interview with The Wrap, Hawley estimated that the strikes delayed season 2’s production by six months before filming took place from January to mid-March 2024, and the episodes finally hit streaming in January 2025.
Judging by that timeline, and pending a quick renewal and no new delays, season 3 of The Recruit could land on streaming as soon as the first half of 2026.
Jang Kyun(Yoo) and Owen (Centineo) fight in a Seoul nightclub.
(Image credit: Seo Ji Hyung/Netflix)
Who in the ‘The Recruit’ cast would return for season 3?
Based on season 2’s ending, it’s likely that the entire main cast of The Recruit could return for season 3: Noah Centineo (Owen Hendricks), Fivel Stewart (Hannah Copeland), Daniel Quincy Annoh (Terrence Hoffman), Vondie Curtis-Hall (Walter Nyland), Kristian Bruun (Janus Ferber), Colton Dunn (Lester Kitchens) Aarti Mann (Violet Ebner), Kaylah Zander (Amelia Salazar), Dodge (Jesse Collin), and Nathan Fillion (CIA Director Alton West).
It’s yet to be revealed if the series would bring back its Korean cast beyond season 2. However, since they’re all tied to the CIA by friendship or romance by the finale, fingers crossed that Teo Yoo (Jang Kyun Kim), Sanghee Lee (Nan Hee Kim), Shin Do-hyun (Yoo Jin Lee), and Kim Young-Ah (Kim Grace) could reprise their roles in the future.
What would ‘The Recruit’ season 3 be about?
Spoilers for The Recruit season 2 finale ahead. In the season 2 finale, after multiple double-crosses that we can barely keep track of, Owen rescues Jang Hyun and his wife Nan Hee from the Yakuza, with the help of his childhood love Yoo Jin. Once the trio (plus Lester) are safe aboard an American sub heading out of Russia, Owen suggests that Jang Kyun comes to America and becomes a CIA asset, teasing that the pair’s fledgling brotherhood could continue into another season. (Please, Netflix!)
In his interview with Deadline, Hawley spilled several hints about the show’s possible future, including how he isn’t done with Nichka (Maddie Hasson). “Nichka is very Owen in her chaos agent-ness, so I would love to see her again in some way, shape or form,” he said, adding that season 3 would include the fallout of Dawn’s (Angel Parker) death and Lester’s betrayal of Owen.
Owen (Centineo) arrives in Seoul.
(Image credit: Ricardo Hubbs/Netflix)
As for Owen’s fate at the CIA, Hawley implied that Owen’s win with Jang Kyun’s case would help smooth everything over with his investigation at work. The last moment of the season, where Owen’s smile slowly falls away, is him realizing he maybe isn’t quitting the CIA, after all after spending the whole season grappling with the moral grey area.
Besides the character implications, Hawley told the outlet that he has only been thinking about season 3 “in broad strokes,” especially where it could be filmed abroad. “I’m not sure exactly where I want to go yet. I feel like we’ve done Russia, we’ve done Korea. So maybe Latin America, Africa would be exciting. The American audiences don’t get exposed to Africa a lot in our storytelling for lots of reasons, but I think that would be really interesting.”