That was quick — a day after Netflix unveiled record opening weekend viewership for The Night Agent, the streamer announced that it has picked up a 10-episode second season of the political conspiracy action-thriller series from creator Shawn Ryan and Sony Pictures Television. This marks one of the fastest renewal decisions for Netflix, which typically waits for data on a series’ 28-day performance before pulling the trigger.
“The last week has been a whirlwind as we’ve finally been able to share The Night Agent with the world,” said series creator, executive producer and showrunner Ryan. “To see the tremendous reaction to the show has been a great joy and is a credit to our cast, our writers, our directors, our crew and our partners at Sony Pictures Television and Netflix. We couldn’t be any prouder or more excited to get cracking on Season 2 to share the further adventures of Night Action with our newfound fans.”
Inspired by the novel of the same name by Matthew Quirk, The Night Agent debuted on March 23, raking in 168.7M hours viewed in its first few days on the streamer, the third-best Season 1 premiere week of viewing for any Netflix original with a Top 10 finish in 93 countries.
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“We’re proud to see The Night Agent deliver a breakout performance and become instantly embraced around the world,” said Jinny Howe, VP of Drama Series, Netflix: “Shawn Ryan has created a spy thriller sensation that viewers cannot get enough of, with a stellar cast featuring Gabriel Basso, Luciane Buchanan and Hong Chau, and we’re here to bring them more of the action and suspense they love.”
The Night Agent‘s first season, which was inspired by Quirk’s novel, centered on low-level FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Basso) who works in the basement of the White House, manning a phone that never rings — until the night that it does, propelling him into a fast moving and dangerous conspiracy that ultimately leads all the way to the Oval Office.
In an interview with Deadline last week, Ryan said that the initial pitch for the show to Netflix “was that each season would tell its own, mostly self-enclosed, a beginning, middle and end story, and any future seasons would include a few but not most of the characters that we saw in the previous season. That was the original plan; I think it’s still a pretty solid plan.”
He would not elaborate who besides Basso will be back next season, which opens a new chapter for Peter as a Night Action agent, but revealed questions that would be answered as the story ventures beyond the original source material. (The following includes a general reference to Season 1 storylines with no major spoilers.)
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Per Ryan, those questions include, “What does it mean that Peter would be a night agent? Where is he going? Now that Rose is going back to California to try to restart her tech career, where does that leave Peter and Rose?”
Ryan serves as showrunner and executive produces via his MiddKid Productions. Seth Gordon, who directed the opening episode, executive produces through his Exhibit A banner. Also executive producing The Night Agent are MiddKid Production’s Marney Hochman, Exhibit A’s Julia Gunn as well as Jamie Vanderbilt, William Sherak, Paul Neinstein and Nicole Tossou from Project X and David Beaubaire for Sunset Lane Media. Sony Pictures Television is the studio.
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“We are thrilled to see The Night Agent become an instant global sensation and can’t wait to continue telling this story with our remarkable cast, creative leader, Shawn Ryan and our wonderful partners at Netflix,” said Katherine Pope, President of Sony Pictures Television.
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