HBO Hopes 'Industry' Will Finally Catch Viewers Attention with Season 3

Over the years, quite a few British shows on HBO have been produced in conjunction with the BBC, airing here on Sundays and in the U.K. on Mondays. The earliest, arguably most famous, was Rome, back in 2005, but Gentleman Jack was also one, as was His Dark Materials (though in that case, the BBC aired it on Sundays and HBO on Mondays). Game of Thrones was famously nearly one of those shows, and though the BBC pulled out in an abundance of caution (and to its regret), the series did follow the Sunday/Monday routine. The point is, up until the summer of 2020 and the beginning of the HBO Max debacle, when the British series aired on HBO, people knew about them and tuned in.

Sadly, since the summer of 2020, that hasn't been the case, as first, the AT&T overlords took the foolish "if it's there, people will automatically find it" approach (no), and now Warner Bros Discovery plays "hide the HBO" of it all. The show that perhaps suffered more than most from this is Industry, which debuted in November 2020. An ensemble production set in the world of finance, this series is the opposite of Succession: young graduates, some from upper-class backgrounds and some faking it, entering the high-powered world of London's Pierpoint & Co. Investment Bank as interns, ruthlessly competing to get hired on in one of the few permanent positions on offer.

The show has been a smash hit on the BBC, moving quickly from BBC Two to BBC One, and most of the core cast has broken out since its debut. Marisa Abela, who plays the ambitious Yasmin Kara-Hanani, also stars in COBRA and recently headlined Back to Black. David Jonsson, who plays Eton grad Gus Sackey, toplined Murder is Easy over the holidays; meanwhile, Myha'la Herrold, as the show's token American, Harper, has gotten so famous in the U.K., she's gone mononymous. 

In America, however, mention the show Industry, and it's nothing but blank stares. 

Thankfully, with WBD's CEO David Zaslav occupied with accidentally burning other sections of his empire to the ground, HBO has managed to get a little marketing done for the poor series, which barely rated mentioning during its first two seasons. Better yet, the show has turned to a bit of stunt casting in hopes of getting the Sunday night eyeballs that will tune in to House of the Dragon for eight weeks to stay with HBO on Sunday nights and check out Industry when it takes over the slot come August, by adding one of Game of Thrones' best-known actors as a Season 3 guest star.

Here's the Season 3 synopsis:

Industry gives an insider’s view of the blackbox of high finance following a group of young bankers as they forge their identities within the pressure cooker environment and sex and drug fueled blitz of international bank Pierpoint & Co’s London office.  

As Pierpoint looks to the future and takes a big bet on ethical investing, Yasmin, Robert, and Eric find themselves front and center in the splashy IPO of Lumi, a green tech energy company led by Henry Muck, in a story that runs all the way to the very top of finance, media, and government. Since leaving Pierpoint, Harper is eager to get back into the addictive thrill of finance and finds an unlikely partner in FutureDawn portfolio manager Petra Koenig.    

Out of the five main cast members who have appeared in every episode of the series for the first two seasons, four return for Season 3: Myha’la as Harper Stern, Marisa Abela as Yasmin Kara-Hanani, Harry Lawtey (Joker: Folie à Deux) as the working-class Robert Spearing, and Ken Leung (Lost) as the boss Eric Tao will return for Season 3. 

David Jonsson’s character, Gus, was hired away by Bloom in the Season 2 finale and is not expected to appear in Season 3. 

Every season of Industry has had single-season guest stars that appear in every episode, usually playing higher-ups for the interns to interact with. In Season 1, those roles went to Belfast's Conor MacNeill (who will have a minor guest role in Season 3) and Skins' Freya Mavor (who had a minor guest role in Season 2). In Season 2 it was For All Mankind's Alex Alomar Akpobome. 

Game of Thrones' Kit Harington is obviously the big one for Season 3 as Henry Muck, but he'll also be joined by SisterS' Sarah Goldberg as FutureDawn portfolio manager Petra Koenig.

Season 3 will also include returning cast members Sagar Radia (The Good Karma Hospital), Indy Lewis (La Fortuna), Adam Levy (Inspector George Gently), Sarah Parish (Stay Close), Trevor White (I Hate Suzie), Elena Saurel (Killing Eve) and Irfan Shamji (Shardlake). In addition to Harington and Goldberg, new cast members include Miriam Petche (The Worst Witch) as Sweetpea Golightly, Andrew Havill (Endeavour) as Lord Norton, Roger Barclay (Professor T) as Otto Mostyn, Fady Elsayed (Gangs of London) as Ali El Mansour, and Fiona Button (The Split) as Denise Oldroyd.  

Created, written, and directed by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, Industry's directors for this eight-episode season also include Isabella Eklöf and Zoé Wittock. The series is a Bad Wolf Production for HBO/BBC and is executive produced by Jane Tranter, Kate Crowther, and Ryan Rasmussen for Bad Wolf, and Rebecca Ferguson for BBC. 

Industry Season 3 debuts on HBO and Max on Sunday, August 11 at 9 p.m. ET and will air and stream with weekly episodes on Sundays through the end of September.