If, like us, you’ve been loving Dept. Q – the new Netflix drama currently taking the top spot on our watchlist – you’ll also be dying to know what’s next and whether we can expect a season two.
Fans have been raving about the psychological thriller, hailing it as "brilliant" and binge-watching all nine episodes on the day of its release at the end of May.
The show stars Matthew Goode (Downton Abbey, Call The Midwife) as Carl Morck, a scarred detective who’s recovering after an attack left his partner paralysed and another police officer dead. Upon his return to work, Carl is assigned to a cold case that consumes his life.
So if, like Detective Morck, this story has consumed your life too, here’s everything you need to know about Dept. Q – and whether it will return for a season 2.
© Jamie Simpson/NetflixWill there be a second season of Dept. Q?
While there have been no official announcements – yet – about a season 2, it’s hard not to be hopeful that a renewal is on the horizon.
As the show is set on a series of books (10 of them, to be exact) by Jussi Adler-Olsen, we remain hesitantly hopeful that Dept. Q will return to our screens ASAP.
© Justin Downing/NetflixThe Netflix adaptation followed the plot of the first book in Jussi Adler-Olsen's series, The Keeper of Lost Causes, so it’s hard not to imagine there’s plenty of source material from the remaining nine books that showrunners can draw from.
Scott Frank, the creator of the show, hinted this may be the case when he told the BBC: "The last three shows I made were meant to be one and done… I'd love to do more with this and the next book in the series is even more interesting and relevant."
"Hopefully we get to come back down," agreed Alexej Manvelov (Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Chernobyl), who plays Akram Salim, when he spoke to Yahoo UK.
Matthew Goode echoed his sentiment, saying: "I was saying to Scott the other day, what we really need to do is, A, season 2, and we need to get Alexej into eight weeks of Krav Magar training so the fight scenes in season 2 can be amazing."
What is Dept. Q about?
Dept. Q follows Detective Carl Morck, who is dubbed "a brilliant cop but a terrible colleague".
The official synopsis reads: "His razor-sharp sarcasm has made him no friends in Edinburgh police. After a shooting that leaves a young pc dead, and his partner paralysed, he finds himself exiled to the basement and the sole member of Department Q; a newly formed cold case unit.
"The department is a PR stunt, there to distract the public from the failures of an under-resourced, failing police force that is glad to see the back of him. But more by accident than design, Carl starts to build a gang of waifs and strays who have everything to prove.
© Netflix"So, when the stone-cold trail of a prominent civil servant who disappeared several years ago starts to heat up, Carl is back doing what he does best - rattling cages and refusing to take no for an answer."
Who else stars in Dept. Q and will they be returning?
Alongside Matthew Goode and Alexej Manvelov, other cast members include Chloe Pirrie (The Game, An Inspector Calls), as Merritt Lingard, Jamie Sives (Annika, Guilt) as DCI James Hardy, and Mark Bonnar (Shetland, Unforgotten) as Stephen Burns.
Although there have been no announcements about whether the show might return and with which cast members, Chloe Pirrie echoes our hopes for familiar faces to return.
"I'd love to see more," she told Yahoo UK. "When I watched the episodes I was just like these characters are such fun to be with – especially for me, because there's so much work I didn't see.
© Justin Downing/Netflix"So I just loved meeting all those characters on the screen and I just think, 'I've got to spend more time with these people.' They're so great, I would love to see more of it personally, even though I'm in it! But I think we wanna follow them along, I want to see that team do more stuff together."
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
Where can I binge in the meantime?
Dept. Q is available to stream on Netflix now.
