On December 5, Netflix celebrated the holiday season by releasing a show that deserves the 2024 version of the "Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?" debate. Starring Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw, Black Doves is an excellent spy thriller set in London during Christmastime. The aforementioned Queen of Period Pieces plays a "Black Dove," an undercover agent whose shadowy organization sells government secrets to the highest bidder.
Since its release, the must-watch series has garnered widespread acclaim from viewers and critics, including a Golden Globe nomination for Knightley. Luckily for viewers who have already binged the six-episode season, Netflix has already revealed the series' fate. Read on for everything we know about Black Doves season 2 so far.
Has 'Black Doves' been renewed for season 2?
Netflix has confirmed that Black Doves season 2 is on the way. During the Edinburgh TV Festival in August 2024, the streaming giant announced that the espionage thriller would return, over three months before the show's debut.
When will 'Black Doves' season 2 come out?
It's still too early to say when Black Doves season 2 will be released, but fans can rest easy because the crew is already working on writing it.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, creator Joe Barton revealed that he's already back in the writers' room and plans to film the show in 2025. However, he also confirmed that the series will probably not return for the 2025 holidays due to scheduling.
"If it was down to me, I’d probably set everything at Christmas. I just like writing about it," Barton said, when asked if season 2 will take place during the holidays. "But no, I think mostly because of schedules and release, to have something ready for next Christmas would be impossible. And then you’d be in a situation where we’d have to make people wait two years for the Christmas after that, which should just be too long. So I think inevitably it’s not going to be a Christmas show. But it’ll be interesting to see them out of their winter coats."
While the show won't be back a year after its initial release, because it's already in the early days of pre-production, we'd guess it'll be back sometime in winter/spring 2026.
Who in the cast will return for 'Black Doves' season 2?
Most of Black Doves's main roster makes it out of season 1 alive, so it's highly likely that the show's cast will return to reprise their roles. This includes Keira Knightley (Helen Webb), Ben Whishaw (Sam Young), Sarah Lancashire (Reed), Andrew Buchan (Wallace Webb), Kathryn Hunter (Lenny Lines), Ella Lily Hyland (Williams), Gabrielle Creevy (Eleanor), Omari Douglas (Michael), and Luther Ford (Hector).
What will 'Black Doves' season 2 be about?
Spoilers for Black Doves season 1 ahead. By the end of Black Doves season 1, Helen's season-long quest to avenge her lover Jason's (Andrew Koji) murder has ended with her and Sam wiping out the Clark crime family. Sam is the one to pull the trigger, to save Helen from the emotional burden of killing Trent Clark (Angus Cooper). With his selfless act towards Helen, Sam sacrifices his chance to leave life as an assassin behind and live with Michael. Instead, the show teases that Sam forms an alliance with Hector to stay in London.
Meanwhile, after learning that Jason was really an MI5 agent who'd been investigating her, Helen makes big decisions regarding her future. Rather than leaving London, she reconciles with Reed and Wallace, who's on track towards becoming the prime minister.
Speaking to Tudum, creator Joe Barton confirmed that season 2 will follow Helen as Wallace's career success "increases the pressure and the danger on her as a spy."
He added, "Just seeing the tension of that, seeing Sam back in London…I would like to see more Eleanor and Williams, Kai-Ming, all those people. I’d like to start to throw them up against one another again, and maybe make things more dangerous and challenging for them."
He also told Variety that he's looking forward to showing more of Helen and Sam's backstories, including Helen, or Daisy's, childhood.
"We’re still early in the process...We filmed some flashbacks, which didn’t make the final cut, of young Helen and her stepdad and her sister Bonnie," he revealed. "I think that would be really interesting to find out more about. With the second series, I think it’s quite interesting to discover more about the characters, and Sarah’s character. We know quite a lot about Sam, but there’s always more. And just the opportunity to open the scope up a little bit, but that’s all kind of TBC at the moment."
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Barton also revealed that he hopes to give Helen and Sam a "proper on-screen antagonist, a proper villain" to deal with in the second season. However, Barton was tight-lipped about who he wants for the role.
"It’s too early to say because I don’t even know exactly the age or even gender of the villain," he said. "We’re still playing around with it. What’s been amazing about series 1 is getting all these incredible actors together. So we do feel quite excited about who we can add to the group. Some names have been flying around. I’ve got one idea, but we’ll see."
