Following the success of its first season, Netflix has announced the return of darkly comic police mystery Dept. Q, with filming now underway on location in Edinburgh. Based on the book series by Jussi Adler-Olsen, the series follows the irascible detective Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) as he remains inexplicably employed by the Edinburgh police department, handling historic unsolved cases, working out of the station basement, accompanied by a motley crew of similarly unwanted detectives.
Written and directed by The Queen’s Gambit’s Scott Frank, Season 1 spent six weeks in the global top ten shows on Netflix, and earned a “Certified Fresh” rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. While those numbers would normally make a renewal a foregone conclusion, recent events have shown that, with Netflix, nothing is guaranteed. As such, the news that filming has started is very reassuring. Hopefully, this means we will finally get some closure concerning the unresolved shooting that set the story in motion.
Naturally, Goode is returning to the series, along with Morck’s entire team, including Jamie Sives (aka Jory from Game of Thrones) as his deadpan partner Hardy, Leah Byrne as Rose, their sardonic assistant, and Alexej Manvalov as fan-favorite Akram. Supporting cast members Kate Dickie, Sanjeev Kohli, and Mark Bonnar are also confirmed as returning, but Kelly Macdonald’s status is less certain, with her name notably absent from many of the cast updates. New faces this season include Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale, Speak No Evil), Greg Wise (The Crown), Alex Ferns (Chernobyl, Star Wars: Andor), and Amy Brenneman (The Old Man, Heat).
Showrunner Scott Frank is also returning, and back when the series’ future was uncertain, he already had plans for the second season – in an interview with Collider, he seemed enthused with the idea of adapting the second book, saying:
“The second book in the series is quite good, so I’ve got a great idea for a second season. It is another cold case and also a current case, at the same time, that they’re looking into.”
Production has been cagey about the specifics of the plot, but executive producer Rob Bullock released a tantalizing statement at the start of production saying:
“This season, Carl and his band of misfits tackle a terrible crime hidden in the highest echelons of Scottish society. It is a story for our times: rich and powerful people who believe they are above the law. Carl, of course, knows otherwise.”
That being said, anyone who has read the books will have a decent grasp on what this season’s plot will entail. Based on the second entry in the series, The Absent One, the story has Morck investigating a presumed-solved murder case from the 1980s, which leads the team to a girl who has apparently vanished off the face of the earth.
Netflix has yet to reveal exactly when audiences can expect Dept. Q’s latest case to arrive, but with shooting underway now, it’s unlikely the show will drop on the streamer before 2027. For fans who binge-watched the first season, this may seem like a long wait, but at least it’s officially underway, and if it lives up to the standards of Season 1, then Dept. Q could return bigger, darker, and even more addictive than before.
