Netflix’s breakout Scottish crime drama Dept. Q is officially back for a second season, renewing the misfit team’s quest into Copenhagen’s darkest corners with a plot pulled from Jussi Adler-Olsen’s second novel, The Absent One. Announced on August 18, 2025, the renewal comes after Season 1’s nine-episode run racked up 150 million hours viewed globally, landing in the Top 10 in 85 countries and earning a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score for its blend of procedural grit and emotional depth. Creator Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit, Logan) confirmed the adaptation will dive into a 20-year-old double murder case that seems solved but hides layers of elite corruption, promising a “dual timeline” structure that intertwines past and present like Season 1’s chilling finale. With production slated for late 2025 and a mid-2026 premiere, Dept. Q Season 2 is shaping up as Netflix’s next bingeable Nordic noir hit—think The Killing meets Mindhunter with a Scottish twist.

Season 1 introduced DCI Carl Mørck (Matthew Goode, The Crown), a brilliant but broken detective sidelined to a basement cold case unit after a shooting left his partner paralyzed. Teaming with the enigmatic Rose (Leah Byrne) and sharp-witted Akram (Alexej Manvelov), Mørck cracked the Merritt Lingard kidnapping, exposing a Jennings family revenge plot that ended with gunfire and unresolved trauma. The finale’s cliffhanger—a lingering Leith Park shooting tied to Mørck himself—set the stage for more personal stakes. Frank teased to Collider: “It’s another cold case and a current one at the same time—Morck reopens a brother-sister double murder from two decades ago where the convict’s a privileged boarding school alum now in power. But there’s a homeless witness, Kimmie, with secrets the elite will kill to bury.”

The Absent One (2006), Adler-Olsen’s follow-up to The Keeper of Lost Causes, centers on the 1980s murders of siblings tied to a group of wealthy teens who confessed under pressure—but Mørck suspects a cover-up. The novel’s themes of class privilege and institutional rot align with Season 1’s DNA, promising twists that “turn everything on its head,” per Frank. Expect the basement team’s dynamic to evolve: Hardy (Jamie Sives) grappling with his shooting recovery, Rose’s quirks deepening, and Akram’s tech savvy clashing with old-school policing. Goode returns as the chain-smoking Mørck, whose “deeply flawed brilliance” anchors the series. “We’re raring to return to Carl and his glorious misfits,” Netflix execs Mona Qureshi and Manda Levin said.

Filming resumes in Edinburgh late 2025, with Frank directing key episodes. The renewal reflects Season 1’s success: six weeks in the Global Top 10, Emmy submissions, and praise for its “darkly humorous propulsion.” Frank called it “folly enabled by Netflix’s faith,” hinting at a shorter 6-8 episode arc. Adler-Olsen’s 11-book series offers endless potential, but Season 2’s dual mysteries—past brutality, present hunt for Kimmie—will test Mørck’s resolve.

For fans of Scandinavian noir like The Bridge or Slow Horses, Dept. Q Season 2 is unmissable: procedural thrills wrapped in human fragility. Stream Season 1 now on Netflix; the cold cases thaw in mid-2026.