Poker Face, the acclaimed series from Rian Johnson, has been cancelled – but it may be returning elsewhere with a brand new lead.
Streaming service Peacock has decided not to renew the Columbo-inspired murder mystery show, but Johnson will shop his series around in the hopes it will be picked up by another network.
If Poker Face does return, however, it will be without lead star Natasha Lyonne, who starred for two seasons as Charlie Cale, a woman with the uncanny ability to tell when people are lying. Instead, the show would star Emmy winner Peter Dinklage, best known for his role as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones.
Johnson and Lyonne said in a statement: “We’ve been germinating this next move together since writing the season two finale. We love our Poker Face and this is the perfect way to keep it rolling.
“Give us a beat and we may just see Charlie Cale again down that open highway.”
In the series, Lyonne’s human lie detector Charlie is forced to go on the run across America and ends up investigating a new murder every episode.
Across two seasons, the show featured several high-profile cameos, including Adrien Brody, Cynthia Erivo, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Chloë Sevigny, and Nick Nolte.
Poker Face was widely acclaimed and has a score of 97 per cent on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.
In a four-star review for The Independent, TV critic Nick Hilton wrote: “In a way, Poker Face represents the perfect synthesis of Lyonne’s chronology-busting masterpiece, Russian Doll, and the newly established appetite for murder mysteries conducted with the marching band rhythm of the Coen Brothers or Edgar Wright.
“The plots might wrap themselves up a little too conveniently at times… but the anarchic spirit of Poker Face carries it through.”
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The news arrives shortly before the release of Johnson’s third Knives Out film Wake Up Dead Man, which sees Daniel Craig return as debonair sleuth Benoit Blanc alongside a new ensemble cast including Josh O’Connor, Mila Kunis, and Glenn Close.
Johnson’s other credits include Brick (2005), Looper (2012), and the 2017 Star Wars film The Last Jedi.
While Johnson served as the lead writer and director on Poker Face, the series showrunner was Tony Tost. It is unknown whether Tost would return for a third season should another streamer pick it up.
Tost showran season two, replacing Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, who stepped away after season one was released in 2023. Poker Face’s second season aired earlier this year with episodes available to stream in the UK on NOW.
