Piecing Together All the Clues About 'Poker Face' Season 2

Corrupt casino employees and murderous barbecue chefs beware, because Charlie Cale is back for another round of crime solving. Peacock renewed the Columbo-inspired dramedy for Season 2 in February 2023—before the Season 1 finale even aired—meaning that Natasha Lyonne fans won’t have to wait long for the return of their wise-cracking, raspy-voiced hero.

The first season’s procedural structure made viewers wonder whether Lyonne and creator Rian Johnson intended for the show to last longer than one season, but both have said they hope the series continues for as long as fans are interested.

“We want to keep doing it, and I feel like it is very much built so that there is an overarching story, but it’s kind of similar to the story of whether Sam is going to get home on Quantum Leap,” Johnson told Deadline in April 2023, referencing the 1980s sci-fi series starring Scott Bakula.

“It kind of doesn’t matter really, it’s just an engine to be able to keep her on the road and keep her moving and keep doing these little mysteries and having exciting people in them. Our goal is to just keep doing that as long as we can.”

Johnson, who directed Knives Out and its sequel, Glass Onion, became interested in developing a show with Lyonne after seeing her in Netflix’s Russian Doll. “Pretty much everything that has to do with Poker Face is Rian’s fault,” Lyonne joked to Deadline.

While many fans have clocked the Columbo influence behind the show’s “murder of the week” format, Lyonne and Johnson also looked to other famous fictional detectives for inspiration when creating the series, including Jessica Fletcher from Murder, She Wrote and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe.

“I also knew that I wanted to be Gene Hackman from the Night Moves era, as opposed to Popeye Doyle,” Lyonne told Collider in February 2023. “Those were the tentpoles which I worked around. I think more about, ‘Which male actor from the ’70s should I steal from,’ and less about, ‘Should my character wear hoop earrings or studs?’”

Related: Where Is Poker Face Filmed?

Keep reading for more details about Season 2 of Poker Face.

Is there a Season 2 of Poker Face?

Peacock renewed Poker Face for a second season in February 2023, but the new episodes don’t yet have a release date.

How did Season 1 of Poker Face end?

In the Season 1 finale, Cliff Legrand (Benjamin Bratt) finally caught up with Charlie while she recovered from stab wounds in Denver. He brought her back to his boss, Sterling Frost Sr. (Ron Perlman), who informed her that he didn’t want her dead after all. (In the first episode, she’d caused the death of his son, Sterling Frost Jr., played by Adrien Brody.) Instead, Sterling Sr. wanted to hire Charlie as his own personal human lie detector.

Charlie agreed to do the job, but unbeknownst to her and Sterling Sr., Cliff had secretly made a deal with a rival casino owner named Beatrix Hasp (voiced by Rhea Perlman). Cliff tried to frame Charlie for the murder of Sterling Sr., but she contacted her FBI buddy Luca (Simon Helberg) to get things straightened out. Luca then offered her a job at the agency, but Charlie seemed skeptical. She got a second job offer from Beatrix, who told her she could either come work for the Hasp family or spend the rest of her life on the run.

Related: What to Know About a Possible Season 3 of Russian Doll

Who is cast in Season 2 of Poker Face?

So far, Natasha Lyonne is the only person confirmed to star in Poker Face Season 2, as most of her co-stars in Season 1 were guests who either ended up dead or punished for their criminal misdeeds. Before Poker Face, Lyonne starred in Netflix’s Russian Doll and Orange Is the New Black. After making her film debut at age 16, Lyonne racked up credits in movies including American Pie, Slums of Beverly Hills, But I’m a Cheerleader, Honey Boy and Ad Astra. She also made a cameo in Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which premiered in 2022.

What is Season 2 of Poker Face about?

No plot details about season of Poker Face have been revealed, but it’s probably safe to assume that Charlie will once again find herself on the run after refusing Beatrix Hasp’s offer to come work for the Five Families. There’s also a possibility that she’ll try to mend fences with her sister, Em (Clea DuVall), who was not too happy about Charlie fleeing to her house in her time of need.

Will Poker Face Season 2 have the same format as Season 1?

Johnson and Lyonne haven’t definitively confirmed whether Poker Face Season 2 will also have a “murder of the week” structure, but it seems very likely that it will. When discussing his goal for the series, Johnson has always pointed to procedural crime dramas like The Rockford Files as examples of the shows he’s trying to emulate with Poker Face.

“I had the idea in my head of wanting to do a case of the week, episodic type show. Something that was kind of like the TV shows I grew up loving like Magnum P.I., Murder, She Wrote and Quantum Leap,” Johnson explained to Deadline in April 2023. “I wanted to go back to that versus a show with a mystery that runs across the whole season.”

What is the Poker Face Season 2 release date?

Season 2 of Poker Face does not yet have a release date.

How to watch Poker Face Season 2

Poker Face Season 2 will exclusively be available to Peacock subscribers when it premieres.

Is Poker Face on Netflix?

Because Poker Face is a Peacock original series, it will not stream on Netflix.

Is Poker Face on Hulu?

Poker Face is a Peacock original, so it will not be available on Hulu.

Is there a trailer for Poker Face Season 2?

As of April 27, 2023, there is not yet a trailer for Poker Face Season 2.

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