Noah Centineo’s The Recruit has become Netflix’s latest cancellation victim, possibly due to the show’s relative identity crisis. Just a month after season two premiered, the streaming giant decided to axe the spy adventure series, triggering a wave of speculation from fans.
Like many abruptly canceled shows, Netflix did not provide an official statement explaining its decision. Typically, these terminations stem from issues like overspending, low viewership, or poor reviews. However, The Recruit may have been axed due to competition from another similar Netflix series — The Night Agent.
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Many Netflix subscribers are upset after the streaming giant canceled their favorite spy series.
Netflix Cancels The Recruit After Just Two Seasons
Did The Night Agent Cost The Show’s Future?
On March 5, 2025, actor Colton Dunn, who plays Lester Kitchens in The Recruit, announced on social media that the series had been canceled. Show creator Alexi Hawley later confirmed the news in a heartfelt letter. He reflected on his experience working with the cast and crew, and making the two seasons. Hawley didn’t say why Netflix canceled The Recruit, but he suggested the show always struggled to get made. Still, he remained hopeful about a possible movie continuation.
The Recruit’s cancellation sparked outrage on social media, with fans calling Netflix’s decision unfair. Many blamed the streaming platform for releasing it too close to The Night Agent. Season 2 of The Recruit premiered on January 30, 2025, less than a week after The Night Agent’s second season’s debut on January 23. Given the similarities between the two shows, fans believe that this scheduling overlap may have hurt The Recruit’s renewal chances. And they might just be right.
Are The Night Agent And The Recruit The Same?
Similar Premise, Different Styles & Characters
Fans who have watched The Recruit, The Night Agent, or both can easily distinguish the two. While they share a similar setting, their tones and styles are distinct. The Recruit is a more lighthearted spy drama, whereas The Night Agent leans toward a serious, Jack Ryan-style action thriller.
In terms of premise, The Recruit follows Owen Hendricks, a CIA lawyer caught in global political chaos, while The Night Agent centers on Peter Sutherland, an FBI agent pulled into a high-stakes government conspiracy. Even their protagonists are vastly different. Hendricks is a rookie fighting to survive, whereas Sutherland is a highly trained agent on a mission.
The issue isn’t about which show came first or whether one copied the other. It’s about how first-time viewers decide what to watch on Netflix. To a newcomer browsing the platform, The Recruit, and The Night Agent might seem like two similar espionage shows, making it easy to pick just one to binge. While Netflix (and every other streaming service) is packed with spy thriller series, the problem here is that these two nearly identical properties had the same number of seasons (so far) and were released at almost the same time.
Why Did Netflix Cancel The Recruit?
The Night Agent Is Way More Popular
The Night Agent completely outperformed The Recruit in terms of popularity, and the numbers don’t lie. The Gabriel Basso-led series currently ranks seventh on Netflix’s most-watched shows of all time, with 98.2 million views. Even without considering lifetime views, the gap between the two series was evident early on. According to TheWrap, The Recruit season 2 opened with 5.9 million views in its first four days, but quickly fell out of Netflix’s Top 10. It trailed behind The Night Agent season 2, which pulled in nearly triple the viewership with 15.2 million views in its second week and dominated the charts.
A show’s budget usually plays a big role in whether viewership numbers matter, but at $5 million per episode, The Recruit wasn’t an expensive project for a high-end series. However, it was produced by Lionsgate Television (as Entertainment One) and only later acquired by Netflix. The licensing fees and legal complexities are more complicated than for in-house Netflix originals. With only modest viewership, Netflix may have canceled The Recruit simply to avoid the extra hassle.
Will The Recruit Have A Season 3?
Show Creator Wants To Continue The Story
Netflix canceling The Recruit doesn’t mean the show is completely over. In his announcement letter, Alexi Hawley made it clear he’d love to continue, saying they’d be there “in a heartbeat” if given the chance for “two seasons and a movie.” Season 1 took Noah Centineo’s character to Russia, while season 2 moved him to Seoul. It was likely that the CIA lawyer’s international journey would have continued even further. Following The Recruit’s season 2 finale, Hawley spoke to TVLine about his wish to allow Owen to mature and grow as a character.
This job at the CIA isn’t the same as college or law school. There are real consequences to his actions, and it was important for us to really show him struggling with that. It’s not just all fun games. People get killed.
Did Netflix’s Scheduling Doom The Recruit?
Numbers don’t always define quality, and Netflix has proved that time and again. The Night Agent is a solid show, and initially, it even seemed better than The Recruit, but the latter improved significantly in season 2. Neither show is a masterpiece, but The Recruit arguably had more room for a third season, while The Night Agent dipped slightly.
One possible reason for this is that The Night Agent’s first season was based on a novel of the same name, but the author never wrote a sequel centered on Peter Sutherland. As a result, season 2 was entirely original material. Regardless, both shows targeted the same audience and were released just a week apart. Many viewers were still finishing The Night Agent when The Recruit premiered, which hurt its chances. Netflix should have given them more time between releases.
The Recruit
- Release Date
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December 16, 2022
