The Fate of Matthew Goode's British Crime Thriller Has Been Decided After Its 88% Rotten Tomatoes Netflix Debut

It’s not time yet for DCI Carl Morck to hand in his badge. Netflix announced that its new hit detective procedural series, Dept. Q, has been renewed for a second season with Matthew Goode back in the saddle as the maverick crime-solver. The news isn’t entirely shocking, considering Season 1 spent six weeks within the platform’s Global Top Ten shows and earned rave reviews to the tune of an 88% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics. Season 2 will once again be filmed and set in Edinburgh, where new mysteries, twists, and turns are sure to unfold around the detective and his rag-tag team.

Dept. Q is based on the series of novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen, following Morck (Goode) as he heads up the titular department of misfits operating out of a basement of an Edinburgh police station. Season 1 picks up with Morck in the aftermath of an attack that paralyzed his partner and left another officer dead. Wracked with guilt and made an enemy of just about every one of his colleagues, the former top-rated detective is “promoted” to lead a cold case unit that’s mostly for show and to bury him where no one can see. However, he slowly starts assembling fellow castoffs who are hungry to prove themselves, and when new developments crop up in the case of a missing civil servant, they finally get the chance to rattle some cages and get results.

Exact plot details for Season 2 aren’t known at this time, but the series still has nine more books to pull from after covering The Keeper of Lost Causes. Series creator Scott Frank, also known for his work on The Queen’s Gambit, previously told Collider’s Christina Radish that he already has an idea in mind based on the second book, The Absent One, which assigns Carl and the team to a case of a murdered brother and sister that appeared to be solved until the file lands on his desk. It’ll be a while before he can share more, and the new season might not be as long as the first, but, for now, he’s happy to have a chance to share that idea. “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,” he said in a statement. Goode, meanwhile, expressed his gratitude and excitement to read what comes next from Frank:

“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!”

Who Else Stars in ‘Dept. Q’?

Frank will be back at the helm as both writer and director for Season 2, alongside fellow executive producers Rob Bullock and Charlotte Moore. The main cast will also be back in the fold alongside Goode. Alexej Manvelov will reprise his role as Akram, Leah Byrne is back as Rose, and Jamie Sives returns as Hardy. Particularly with the latter, there’s still a mystery to be solved regarding who shot Morck and Hardy, as the first season made clear that there was more to the fateful incident than met the eye. Series overseers Mona Qureshi and Manda Levin also hailed the success of the series so far and shared their own anticipation, adding in a statement, “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. We can’t wait to see what Morck and the gang uncover in Season 2…. Edinburgh, we’re back.”

Dept. Q Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix. Stay tuned here at Collider for more as Detective Morck gears up for his next case.