Poker Face Canceled at Peacock, Seeks New Home with New Star
Rian Johnson’s mystery comedy series Poker Face will not be returning for a third season at Peacock.
Johnson does plan to shop the show around to other networks for a two-season pick-up. If Poker Face Season 3 goes ahead, then series star Natasha Lyonne will not be returning as Charlie Cale.
Instead, per an exclusive report by Deadline that has been corroborated by Variety, Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones, Dexter: New Blood) will take over the part. Lyonne will remain on the series as an executive producer.
“We’ve been germinating this next move together since writing the season two finale. We love our Poker Face and this is the perfect way to keep it rolling. Give us a beat and we may just see Charlie Cale again down that open highway,” Johnson and Lyonne said in a statement.
Poker Face ran for two seasons on Peacock, the first having ten episodes and the second having 12. Charlie, who has an incredible ability to detect lies, travels around the United States solving a new murder each episode.
Like its primary influence, Columbo, the first half of each episode would show a murder being carried out. Charlie then brought the killer to justice in the second half.
According to Deadline, while Poker Face Season 2 was one of Peacock’s most-viewed shows, ratings were slightly down compared to Season 1. Due to the show’s production expenses, the streamer chose to cancel the series.
No reason is given for Lyonne’s departure, but Deadline claims that Johnson now envisions the role of Charlie swapping out every two seasons. How Dinklage will step into the role is not clear at this time.
Poker Face Season 2 Episode 12 “End of the Road” featured an open ending, where Charlie goes on the run from the FBI and hits the road again. It is unclear how a third season would pick up from this with a new lead.
Poker Face is produced by both Johnson’s production company, T-Street, and Lyonne’s Animal Pictures, as well as MRC Television and Paramount Pictures.
Other executive producers include series showrunner Tony Tost, Iain B. MacDonald, Adam Arkin, Ram Bergman, Lilla and Nora Zuckerman, Nena Rodrigue, and Chris Provenzano.
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Poker Face Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming on Peacock.
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Devin Meenan
Devin Meenan is a freelance entertainment writer, with bylines at outlets including IGN, /Film, Polygon and more. His first love was movies but he found himself writing more passionately about TV, hence him joining the Tell-Tale TV team. His favorite types of TV to sink into include prestige dramas, mystery box thrillers, sci-fi/fantasy, and anime. He can be reached on Twitter @ DevinM626.