Netflix Sets an October Premiere Date for 'The Diplomat' Season 2

Netflix has finally set a premiere date for the return of its buzzy political thriller The Diplomat, one of its biggest and most surprising hits of the last year. 

The contemporary political drama stars Emmy winner Keri Russell (The Americans) as Kate Wyler, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, who must immediately handle an international crisis, learn the duties of a job she didn't want in the first place --- she was originally meant to be sent to Afghanistan --- and deal with the problems her new post is causing in her marriage to Hal (Rufus Sewell), a well-known former diplomatic figure in his own right.

The first season ended with a bang --- literally. While the series began with the attack on the HMS Courageous which was the reason Kate was brought to London, it concludes with the revelation that the U.K. Prime Minister likely orchestrated the entire event, and a car bomb meant to keep those who might figure out the truth quiet. 

The first two images from Season 2 smartly reveal very little about the lingering questions from the first season finale. There's no sign of Hal or U.S. Embassy deputy chief of mission Stuart Hayford (Ato Essandoh), both of whom were in the vicinity of the car bomb when it went off. And though one of the first-look photos shows us Kate at what appears to be a funeral of some sort, the event is just as likely to be for poor MP Merritt Grove (Simon Chandler), whose death would both complicate proving the case against Prime Minister Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear) and remind viewers that for all its fast talking and complex dealmaking, The Diplomat is a show with very real and dangerous stakes.

“Season 1 ended with Kate’s realization that the attack on a British warship [that] brought her to the U.K. wasn’t the work of a hostile nation—it was the British prime minister,” creator Debora Cahn tells Netflix's Tudum. “Now she has to prove it.”

Cahn, a veteran of The West Wing, is certainly no stranger to complex political dramas, but she also indicates that the human side of The Diplomat's story is far from finished, particularly when it comes to the Wylers' marriage, and their apparent inability to quit one another. (How Kate will react if her almost-ex is seriously injured is a question many of us have been stressing about since the finale aired last year.)

'Everything we thought we knew about the Wylers changes, as does everything they think they know about each other," Cahn says. 

Other members of the series cast include David Gyasi (Carnival Row) as UK foreign secretary Austin Dennison, Ali Ahn (The Other Two) as CIA station chief Eidra Park, Nana Mensah (The Chair) as White House chief of staff Billie Appiah, Miguel Sandoval as US secretary of state Miguel Ganon, Michael McKean (Station 19) as U.S. president William Rayburn, Celia Imrie (Keeping Faith) as Meg Roylin, and T’Nia Miller (The Fall of the House of Usher) as Dennison’s sister Cecilia. West Wing alum Allison Janney has joined the Season 2 cast in the recurring role of the frequently mentioned but never before seen Vice President Grace Penn. 

Cahn created The Diplomat and serves as an executive producer and showrunner. Russell also executive produces alongside Janice Wiliams, Alex Graves, and Peter Noah.

All eight episodes of The Diplomat Season 2 will drop on Thursday, October 31. Season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.