What Will Happen In Black Doves Season 2?

It’s not even Christmas yet, and you’ve already raced through the festive hit of the season. What next? With Black Doves season 2 already confirmed, here’s everything to look forward to in the future.

Will There Be Black Doves Season 2?

Yes, Black Doves season 2 was confirmed by Netflix four months before the series was even released. The news broke at 2024’s Edinburgh TV Festival, which took place in August. ‘It’s never happened before,’ series creator Joe Barton said on the news. ‘Most things I work on get cancelled almost instantly,’ he added, referring to The Lazarus Project which was cancelled after two seasons, and Giri/Haji which survived only one.

‘I was all prepared to have a really nervous Christmas this year,’ Barton added. ‘I was on holiday, and in an Italian supermarket, when I got a call from the producers saying, “Come home, you need to start writing, we’re doing more”.’ He added it’s a good feeling to have ‘everyone feeling very, very confident about the show, that we’ve made something that we can all stand behind and can’t wait for people to watch.’

Season 1 Ending Explained

Helen (Keira Knightly) and Sam (Ben Whishaw) fortunately make it out of Black Doves season 1 alive, with a showdown making for an explosive season finale. After making it her personal mission to uncover the killer of her lover Jason (Andrew Koji), Helen discovers the truth and demands justice from the murderer (more on that below). She aims her gun at the perpetrator of Jason’s death, but it’s Sam who ultimately pulls the trigger – and will probably have to deal with the fallout.

Andrew Koji as Jason in Black Doves. (Netflix)

Who Killed Jason?

As it turns out, Trent (Angus Cooper) – the son of crime boss Alex Clark (Tracey Ullman) – ordered the hit on Jason, Maggie and Phillip to cover his tracks after accidentally killing Ambassador Chen (Andy Cheung) in a heated argument. Sam kills both Trent and Alex, saving Helen from the strife it’ll cause. ‘He does it because he loves [Helen] and because he owes her and because he’s trying to protect her from the burden of killing that kid,’ series creator, writer, and executive producer Joe Barton says. ‘He’s always lived his life by this code of not killing innocent people. Though you can argue that Trent isn’t innocent, that he’s done bad things, he’s still a gentle soul who’s made a terrible mistake.

‘The idea was that Sam makes a personal sacrifice for his friend because he loves her, and because, as you see in Episode 3, she sacrificed her own chance to get out in order to help him,’ Barton explains. ‘He’s there to do anything for her, so he does it.’

This also means Sam won’t end up with Michael, who he develops a relationship with over the course of season 1. ‘He knows that he’s just not able to be with the man that he loves because he’s dangerous,’ Barton explains. ‘That’s emphasized by the fact that Hector (Luther Ford) turns up at Michael’s (Omari Douglas) house and gives him an ultimatum: “You can either come work for me and continue being in the criminal world, or you can leave – but you leave forever”.

‘Sam knows when he goes back to Michael’s flat that it’s impossible [to be with Michael],’ Barton adds. ‘But he can’t say it, so they have a little dance.’

After the showdown, Reed (Sarah Lancashire) gives Helen a hard drive containing all of the information she has gathered on Jason – who, it turns out, was actually an MI5 agent investigating Helen over concerns that she was leaking government secrets. (Of course, Jason hit the nail on the head.) Instead of delving into Jason’s life, Helen throws the hard drive into the Thames. ‘She has enough information about him, which is that he loved her, and he saved her, and the details are superfluous because she’s invented a whole new set of details for herself,’ Barton explains. ‘What was in his heart, ultimately, was the one thing that she knew was real, so that act of saving her was real, and that’s all she needed.’

With Wallace on track for prime minister and no more spies on her tail, Helen remains a member of the Black Doves – setting the stage for season 2.

Keira Knightley & Andrew Buchan in Black Doves. (Ludovic Robert/Netflix)

Alternative Ending

But this isn’t how Black Doves was always going to end. ‘There was a different reveal about who killed the Chinese ambassador that we filmed and didn’t end up using,’ Barton says. In this alternate universe, the series contained a subplot featuring the Irish MI5 agent who visits Helen and Wallace’s house about the break-in at the US embassy, Perryman (Adam Best). In this version, Perryman was hired to kill Ambassador Chen.

What Will Happen In Black Doves Season 2?

Barton likes the idea of Helen ‘getting pulled deeper into the world of spies having been so close to leaving’ – especially with Wallace approaching 10 Downing Street. ‘[That] increases the pressure and the danger on her as a spy,’ Barton says. ‘Just seeing the tension of that, seeing Sam back in London… I would like to see more Eleanor and Williams, Kai-Ming, all those people. I’d like to start to throw them up against one another again, and maybe make things more dangerous and challenging for them.’

Will Black Doves season 2 be set at Christmastime? There’s no indication just yet. ‘I started writing the scripts for this show over last year’s Christmas holidays, fueled by turkey sandwiches and discarded bottles of cream liquor,’ Barton told Netflix. With a summer renewal, then, Black Doves could well tackle a different season entirely.

Image courtesy of Netflix

Black Doves Season 2 Release Date

No official news just yet on when Black Doves season 2 will land on Netflix, but we sadly don’t think it will be ready in time for Christmas 2025. Your move, Netflix.

WATCH

All six episodes of Black Doves are available to stream exclusively on Netflix. netflix.com