Noah Centineo's big break in the streaming scene came with Netflix's To All the Boys I've Loved Before, followed by its two sequels, but he went in a very different for his next project for the streamer. The Recruit is an action-packed drama that quickly generated buzz with its first season in 2022, and even helped dethrone Wednesday from the #1 spot on Netflix's Top 10 that year. Season 2 released earlier in the 2025 TV schedule and placed The Recruit back on that Top 10 list, but Centineo's show has since dropped off.
I spoke with Centineo at SCAD TVfest in Atlanta this month while his show was still ranking at #3, and he opened up about so many people using their access to a Netflix subscription. The actor, who found the time to appear in XO, Kitty while filming The Recruit, shared:
You make something and you put it out on a platform like Netflix, which has the largest subscriber base of any of the streaming channels. They even broke the internet recently with their Paul/Tyson fight, with the amount of traffic that went through one singular server. So you put something out on Netflix, and you really hope that it gains traction. You hope that people like it. You hope that it makes an impact on a platform like that.
I can't say that I expected Noah Centineo to cite the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson event, but fans had a lot to say about the tech problems that basically – to quote The Recruit leading man – "broke the internet." While Season 2 of his show didn't quite reach internet-breaking levels of viewership, it did rank at toward the top for a time, and holding the #3 spot more than a week after going live isn't too shabby with how quickly Netflix releases content. He went on:
The fact that The Recruit has made that impact, you feel really, really great about that. On a certain level, to a certain degree, you feel great about the popularity of the show. Even just being in that Top 10 at all for any amount of time is a win, as far as I'm concerned. Hopefully it stays up there for a little bit longer, and hopefully we go back for Season 3.
At the time of writing, Netflix hasn't announced a renewal or a cancellation for The Recruit, so the future remains unclear. The actor was enthusiastic about wanting to play lawyer-turned-CIA asset Owen Hendricks in a third season, though, and creator Alexi Hawley has plenty of experience with long-running shows after creating The Rookie (now in Season 7) and working as executive producer on Castle (which ran for eight seasons).
Centineo had an existing fanbase thanks to the To All the Boys franchise that he starred in opposite Lana Condor between 2018 - 2021. Given that he was receiving SCAD TVfest's Distinguished Performance Award, I asked how it feels for him to have found success in going in a completely different direction with The Recruit:
It's great. It's all fun. I think I'm gonna try to stretch and explore and be as curious as I can be, and find roles that drive my own passion. It feels nice to be able to kind of do that with The Recruit. The Recruit started, I think four years ago. That was the first time I read the initial script, maybe longer. Hopefully I just continue to stretch in different directions.
For now, it's a waiting game to find out if Centineo will get a third season of The Recruit. Season 2 did well in the weeks following its debut in January, but Netflix also has a long list of cancellations, most of which happened after shows' first or second seasons. That certainly doesn't mean The Recruit is doomed just because it hasn't been renewed yet, and Centineo expressed high hopes when speaking to press at TVfest.
And there are still two full seasons to enjoy as the wait continues. Or, if you're more in the mood for a rom-com, you can give any or all of the To All the Boys movies a shot as well.
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