Abhiroop Das
Prime Video’s ‘The Terminal List,’ created by David DiGilio and based on the eponymous book series by Jack Carr, begins its second season with James Reece barely surviving in the ocean, only to be found by the CIA and recruited once again. His enemy turns out to be yet another familiar face, Mo Farooq, only for it to be revealed that the real mole was Jules Landry all along. As Reece and his team dig deeper and keep neutralizing their enemies, they ultimately come across the man pulling the strings, Oliver Grey, who in turn appears to be working for a Russian mastermind known only as the Colonel. While Prime Video hasn’t greenlit a third season as of writing, the season finale raises enough questions to leave fans curious and hungry for more. In the best-case scenario, fans can expect a third season to release between 2028 and 2029.
Season 3 of The Terminal List Will Likely Adapt the Novel Savage Son
With season 2 of ‘The Terminal List’ adapting the Jack Carr novel, ‘True Believer,’ in its entirety, the show’s writing team can now advance to the next entry in the series, ‘Savage Son.’ Serving as the immediate follow-up to ‘True Believer,’ the novel follows Reece and company as they take on the Russian mafia, while simultaneously battling the mastermind behind this entire string of crimes. While the show takes some significant creative liberties in its rendition, the ending more or less plays on the same beats, with the elusive Oliver Grey gearing up for a new attack as Reece recovers from his tumor. As such, a third season can follow on this blueprint and deliver yet another season of thrills and action.
Interestingly, the ending of ‘True Believer’ also implies that Reece’s brain tumor has fully gone away, and that he is now back in full capacity. While it certainly takes away the “terminal” aspect of the story, it leaves us with a new question. All of Reece’s actions were undertaken with a sense that he was about to die, but now that it is no longer the case, how does his conscience reconcile with all the violence he has perpetrated? He also has to worry about the CIA, as while they may have given him a pardon for now, it’s very unlikely that they would simply let go of him, given their complicated history. The novel series is no stranger to Reece fighting a battle on two fronts, and now seems to be the perfect opportunity to bring that to the screen.
Season 3 of The Terminal List Might Continue Without a Few Major Faces
As the second season of ‘The Terminal List’ brings some major shakeups to the story, the cast of a potential third season is bound to look a bit different. The biggest addition this season is characters from the spin-off series ‘The Terminal List: Dark Wolf,’ with Raife Hastings, Mohammed “Mo” Farooq, Jules Landry, and Tal Varon all making the cut. Thus, while actor Chris Pratt remains at the heart of the show as James Reece, fans can expect Tom Hopper, Dar Salim, and Shiraz Tzarfati to reprise their respective roles. However, actor Luke Hemsworth is unlikely to return as Jules Landry, given that his character is implied to have died due to torture. That said, we might have a Ben Edwards-esque situation here, which allows for actor Taylor Kitsch to return as a hallucination.
While season 2 adds several new antagonists, not many of them make it out alive. Amin Al-Nawaz, initially made to feel like the season’s big bad, is killed around the halfway mark, which means that Shadi Janho will likely not step back into this role. The same goes for Vasili Andrenov, whose death in the season finale means that actor Costa Ronin won’t be returning to essay the role. However, we are yet to have a real confrontation with the antagonist, Oliver Grey, which means Jeremy Bobb’s journey with the show is far from over. Lastly, actor Constance Wu is also very likely to return as one of the main characters, Katie Buranek, who brings in a civilian perspective to the story.
Season 3 of The Terminal List Can Shed More Light on James Reece’s Past
As the second season comes to a close, it becomes increasingly clear that the conflict has more to do with Reece, or rather, his past, than we were initially led to believe. Both the Colonel and Oliver Grey, for instance, have somewhat of a history with Reece’s father, Tom, a former Navy SEAL who was mysteriously killed. Season 3 can thus step back in time to answer these burning questions, potentially even adapting Jack Carr’s ‘Cry Havoc,’ which tells Tom’s story in Vietnam. Family has always been a sore spot for Reece, for obvious reasons, and in this season he even kills Vasili in a fit of rage after learning that Oliver is coming in with a personal vendetta. Reece now has a new family to protect, that is, his friends and fellow soldiers, which can make things very interesting.
While ‘The Terminal List: Dark Wolf’ soft-launches the characters of Raife Hastings, Mohammed “Mo” Farooq, and Tal Varon, by the end of ‘The Terminal List’ season 2, they are firmly a part of the grander universe. As such, a potential third installment can focus more on their individual character arcs, particularly Raife’s. While we know that he comes from an immensely powerful family, Raife’s decision to sever all ties with them has hardly been explored in the narrative. We also know very little about Mo and Tal’s personal lives, especially how they react to Ben Edwards’s death. A third season can set the stage for all these complex questions to be answered at last, while also bringing in more of the book to the screen.
Read More: The Terminal List Season 2 Ending Explained: Is Reece’s Tumor Gone?
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