Netflix Cancels The Recruit After Season 2’s Shocking Ending

Despite generating billions of minutes viewed, and landing near the top of the streaming charts, Netflix has canceled The Recruit after two seasons. Noah Centineo produced and led the spy dramedy from series creator Alexi Hawley, which focused on Centineo’s CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks often jumping into dangerous situations that he isn’t prepared for. The show’s second installment, which debuted in late January, turned the action to South Korea and added Past Lives star Teo Yoo to The Recruit cast.

Colton Dunn confirmed on Threads that The Recruit has been canceled by Netflix. Dunn, who played Owen’s reluctant ally Lester Kitchens in all two seasons of the series, called the news “such a bummer” and added that he’d soon share photos and memories from filming. Check out Dunn’s post below:

Why Netflix Canceled The Recruit

Season 2 Saw A Viewership Decline (When Season 1 Was Already A Modest Hit)

By some metrics, The Recruit season 3 seemed like a decent possibility because the second installment performed well enough. For the week of January 27 to February 2, the Netflix Original came in second on Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10 and generated close to 1.2 billion minutes viewed. It was just behind The Night Agent, another Netflix spy drama, which had close to 3 billion minutes viewed.

But looking specifically at Netflix’s own data, there were reasons to worry about the show’s fortunes. Although the series trended on the charts, the numbers represented a decline from season 1. In its first week, according to What’s On Netflix, season 2 had 5.9 million views compared to the 7.3 million start for season 1. It also never made it to Netflix’s Top 10 overall, sliding from the #2 spot to the 7th slot after just a few weeks.

This is combined with the fact that The Recruit season 1 was one of the smaller series, in terms of viewership, to get a season 2 renewal. The cost of filming overseas might have also played a factor, though that could have been alleviated by keeping the season 3 story to more limited locations.

Our Take On The Recruit’s Cancelation

The Better Show Was Canceled

There’s a robust argument to be made that the superior spy saga won’t continue. Depending on what the viewer is looking for, Centineo gave a lively performance that was comedic and dramatic in fitting measure. Despite the abruptness of The Recruit‘s season 2 ending, which tied up the main threads but kept the door open for Yoo to reunite with Cententio, there was a lot of potential in allowing that pairing to move forward. There’s an argument to be made, as well, that subscribers aren’t truly connecting with a lot of Netflix shows. Most originals have seen declines in viewership.

Source: Threads

The Recruit

9/10

Release Date: December 16, 2022
Network: Netflix
Directors: Doug Liman
Writers: Alexi Hawley, George Ghanem, Amelia Roper, Hadi Deeb, Niceole R. Levy, Maya Goldsmith