The Diplomat season 2 finally gets a release date! Here's everything to know

Earlier this year, we heard The Diplomat season 2 would arrive on Netflix sometime in 2024, and now the streamer has confirmed the release date. Have any plans for Halloween this year, or will you be binging all the new episodes of the political thriller like us?

Announced today, The Diplomat season 2 will debut on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. It has not been confirmed how many episodes the installment will entail, but we can most likely expect all episodes to drop at once considering Netflix has only shared one release date. That's great news!

The show's creator Debora Cahn teased of the second installment: “Season 1 ended with Kate’s (Keri Russell) realization that the attack on a British warship [that] brought her to the UK wasn’t the work of a hostile nation — it was the British prime minister. Now she has to prove it.”

Sound exciting? Here's everything else we know so far about The Diplomat season 2!

Season 2 cast

Returning to lead the cast in the starring role, Emmy Award-nominee Keri Russell will once again be playing the iconic Kate Wyler. For her performance in the first season, Russell landed a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. What an impressive feat!

Netflix confirmed a few cast members would return in The Diplomat season 2, but there are a few others with their fate up in the air. Here's the full cast as we know it currently:

• Keri Russell as Kate Wyler
• Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler
• David Gyasi as Austin Dennison
• Ali Ahn as Eidra Park
• Rory Kinnear as Nicol Trowbridge
• Ato Essandoh as Stuart Heyford
• Nana Mensah as Billie Appiah
• Celia Imrie as Margaret Roylin
• Michael McKean as President William Rayburn
• Allison Janney as Vice President Grace Penn

On Jan. 25, Netflix announced that Academy Award winner Allison Janney had joined the season 2 cast and that she'll guest-starring in the role of Vice President Grace Penn. You might recognize Janney from her other roles in I, Tonya, The West Wing, and Mom.

As mentioned, with how the first season ended, there are a few characters whose fates are unclear. Those include Hal Wyler and Ato Essandoh’s characters, so there’s a chance that they could be killed off. I don’t think that would happen, though!

I expect we’ll meet a lot more big stars in the second season. Russell even mentioned she wants her real-life husband, Matthew Rhys, to be involved in the second season. The pair starred together on The Americans. 

However, Rufus Sewell is the cast member that fans are concerned about most. Hal Wyler’s fate is left up in the air, as mentioned, but we have reason to believe that, yes, Sewell will be in season, fingers crossed!

Season 1 ending explained

At the end of the first season, Kate and Dennison realized that Nicol Trowbridge is actually the one responsible for the attack on the British aircraft carrier. He hired Lenkov to pull off the attack to likely unite the United Kingdom under the banner of a cause with an important election looming.

Just after they realize what’s happening, Hal was on his way to meet with a person who claimed to have important information, Merritt Grove. Stuart tried to intervene, and Meritt got spooked, so he fled to his car, which blows up when he gets close to it. Who ordered the car bomb? We don’t know yet, but it appears to be connected to Margaret Roylin and possibly Nicol Trowbridge.

This will likely be the focus of the second season.

What to expect in season 2

According to TV Line, The Diplomat season 2 will pick up immediately after the events of the first season. There will not be a time jump or anything like that. It’s all happening right where the first season ends. The source told TV Line that The Diplomat “has a really compressed timeline. Something like three weeks pass in Season 1. So it makes sense that Season 2 would start moments later.”

Here’s what Cahn has said about season 2:

"“I wanted to bring together all of the different dynamics of the political relationships and the personal relationships in one event that splits apart all at the same time.”"

- Cahn

We should see the fallout of the explosion and Dennison and Kate learning that Trowbridge was involved. The trio of Kate, Hal, and Dennison now have to navigate corruption, attempted murder, and even bigger problems involving the US-UK relationship. It will be really interesting what this means for Kate and Hal, Kate and Dennison, and the potential for more intriguing plot points in the future.

Along with the release date announcement, Cahn also shared about the second season:

"Kate’s colleagues and her almost-ex-husband (Rufus Sewell) are victims of a politically motivated attack in London that takes some lives and shatters the rest. The marriage she thought was over, the relationship she thought was beginning … all of it, in pieces."

- Cahn

The countdown for The Diplomat season 2 begins now! Check back with us at Netflix Life for more updates.