In case you missed the sad news, the second-season run of Poker Face that aired earlier in the 2025 TV schedule was its last, and folks with Peacock subscriptions are not getting a third season on that particular service. The mystery-of-the-week series led by Natasha Lyonne won’t return for Season 3 on the streaming service, but that hasn’t stopped series creator Rian Johnson from shopping a new take on the series featuring Peter Dinklage taking over as lead from Lyonne. For all that I’d love to see that version of the show, what is actually going on following all those rumors?
During the recent premiere of the upcoming Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Johnson spoke with Deadline about the swirling rumors. He confirmed that yes, he’s actively trying to keep the Poker Face concept alive; and yes, the Emmy-winning actor is central to the pitch he’s taking out. Johnson explained:
Look, it’s very early days. We’re gonna see if we can take it out and get it going. But I love Peter, I’ve always wanted to work with him. And I would be so excited if we can get this version of it up and going. It’s a wild swing, and I just feel like it could be so much fun, going forward with the show.
That “wild swing” he mentions lines up with earlier reporting that Johnson now envisions Poker Face as an evolving project with new leads every few seasons — essentially handing Charlie Cale’s crime-solving mantle to a different actor as the show moves forward. Natasha Lyonne herself, who also executive produced, confirmed in a joint statement that she and Johnson had been planning this shift since wrapping the Season 2 finale. Meaning Dinklage isn’t a panic-induced replacement, but already part of the long-term creative roadmap, at least hypothetically.
Even so, the situation is complicated. Season 2 performed well on Peacock, but not at the breakout level of Season 1, but the series is an expensive one with new locations, settings and guest stars on a weekly basis. Combine that with Lyonne stepping away, and the cancellation starts to make more financial sense. Still, Johnson isn’t treating Poker Face as a finished chapter. He’s treating it like a story engine worth saving, even if it shifts platforms, formats, and even leads.
And honestly, Dinklage is as inspired a pick as you could ask for. He’s funny yet can carry the dramatic weight when he needs to, and his recent work on Dexter: Resurrection tapped into everything that makes him great. So the idea of him playing a road-trip sleuth with a complicated past is definitely the kind of inspired pivot that could give the series a genuinely fresh life.
If Johnson succeeds in taking this idea “out,” whether to HBO, Netflix, Amazon, or anywhere else, fans of the original two seasons of the show should expect a very different Poker Face, but one still rooted in the old-school mystery-of-the-week DNA that made fans fall in love with it. Nothing has been officially greenlit, but Johnson’s making noise publicly means this project is far from dead.
We’ll have to wait and see whether this “wild swing” actually becomes the next chapter of Poker Face. In the meantime, Rian Johnson is keeping busy with his other big franchise, Wake Up Dead Man, the newest Knives Out mystery on the 2025 movie schedule. The film arrives in theaters on November 26 and will be available to anyone with a Netflix subscription starting December 12.