Matthew Goode as a grumpy detective? We love it. So why wouldn’t we want to get more of Dept. Q, the newest mystery series to come to Netflix? The good news: It’s coming back for more, the streamer announced on Monday, August 18.
The Goode-led drama premiered with its nine episodes on Thursday, May 29, giving the new head of a police department quite the cold case to solve — while one very personal to both DCI Carl Morck and his partner, DCI James Hardy (Jamie Sives), remains open. The finale left off with a few loose threads to follow, but what’s in store in the show’s future? Read on for everything we know so far about Dept. Q Season 2, from the cast to the case and more.
Has Dept. Q been renewed?
Yes! Netflix renewed Dept. Q for a second season on August 18. It will be filmed and set in Edinburgh, after doing so for the first season was a success.
“I’d like to thank Netflix for giving us the opportunity to further investigate Department Q’s storylines. We have a wonderful cast and crew, headed by our resident genius Scott Frank. I cannot wait to read what comes from his magic quill!” Goode said in a statement.
Added Frank, writer and director of the series, “I’m grateful to the folks at Netflix, as well as our shining cast and crew, for once more risking their careers to enable my folly.”
Season 1 spent six weeks in the Global Top Ten shows on Netflix.
“We are raring to return to Carl Morck and his band of glorious misfits at Dept. Q. Scott Frank brought us best-in-class storytelling and thrilled Netflix audiences worldwide,” Mona Qureshi and Manda Levin, execs for Netflix, said. “We can’t wait to see what Morck and the gang uncover in Season 2…. Edinburgh, we’re back.”
Rob Bullock, executive producer for Left Bank Pictures added, “So, we are going downstairs to Dept. Q for a second season. We at Left Bank Pictures nervously await what Scott has in store for his alter-ego Carl Morck, and the other enabling members of team do-lally. We salute Netflix’s courage to let them loose once again.”
Justin Downing/Netflix
Is Dept. Q based on a book?
Yes. It is based on a Danish Nordic noir crime series by Jussi Adler-Olsen, and there are now 10 books in it.
When will Dept. Q Season 2 premiere?
A premiere date has yet to be announced.
Who’s in the Dept. Q cast?
The first season of Dept. Q starred Matthew Goode as Detective Chief Inspector Carl Morck, Chloe Pirrie as Merritt Lingard, Jamie Sives as Detective Chief Inspector James Hardy, Mark Bonnar as Stephen Burns, Alexej Manvelov as Akram Salim, Leah Byrne as Detective Constable Rose Dickson, Kate Dickie as Detective Chief Superintendent Moira Jacobson, Shirley Henderson as Claire Marsh, Kelly Macdonald as Dr. Rachel Irving, and Tom Bulpett as William Lingard.
So far, returning for Season 2 are Matthew Goode, Alexej Manvelov, Leah Byrne, and Jamie Sives.
Joining writer and director Frank as executive producers are Rob Bullock and Charlotte Moore. Mona Qureshi and Manda Levin oversee as execs for Netflix.
How did Dept. Q Season 1 end?
Morck, Akram, Rose, and Hardy were able to find Merritt, who had been kidnapped by a mother-son duo who blamed her for the other son’s death; she, in turn, blamed the son holding her captive for his attack on her brother. Three months after that, Merritt was doing much better and showed up at the police station to thank those who saved her. She, however, couldn’t find Morck, and the two actually passed by each other without her knowing who he was.
Meanwhile, Morck used the fact that Burns is corrupt to get the department more money, Akram a badge, and himself a car. And so the department — with Hardy joining the others down in the basement, at least once they fix the stairs situation as he continues to recover from being shot and needs crutches to get around — was ready to solve more cold cases.
Who shot Morck and Hardy on Dept. Q?
Both Morck and Hardy survived gunshot wounds they sustained while at a crime scene, but the police officer who was also there was killed. Hardy spent the season recovering. Morck did do a lineup to see if he could recognize the shooter’s eyes — the part he remembers — but came up empty. When Hardy returned to work, Jacobson told him she had a file for him to look at, and we saw her looking at the one for their shooting.
What will Dept. Q Season 2 be about?
That’s to be determined, though it would obviously see the team tackling another cold case. And we’d also imagine that we might get answers about who shot Morck and Hardy.
Right now, the logline simply reads, “DCI Carl Morck heads up the maverick Dept. Q from the basement of an Edinburgh police station. Charged with cases previously deemed unsolvable, this darkly humorous, propulsive show delivers all the pleasures of a procedural, taking us into the complex mysteries not just of the cases but of the detectives themselves.”
Should it follow the second book in Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Danish Nordic noir crime series, The Absent One, its synopsis reads as follows: “By the opening of Adler-Olsen’s shocking, fast-paced follow-up, Mørck is satisfied with the notion of picking up long-cold leads. So he’s naturally intrigued when a closed case lands on his desk: A brother and sister were brutally murdered two decades earlier, and one of the suspects — part of a group of privileged boarding school students —confessed and was convicted. But once Mørck reopens the files, it becomes clear that all is not what it seems. Looking into the supposedly solved case leads him to Kimmie, a woman living on the streets, stealing to survive. Kimmie has mastered evading the police, but now they aren’t the only ones looking for her. Because Kimmie has secrets that certain influential individuals would kill to keep buried . . . as well as one of her own that could turn everything on its head.”
Is there a Dept. Q Season 2 trailer?
Not yet.
Dept. Q, Season 2, TBA, Netflix
