Could The Night Agent Continue Without Gabriel Basso? The Actor And Showrunner Share Their Honest Thoughts

Gabriel Basso as Peter Sutherland in The Night Agent Season 2
(Image credit: Netflix)

The Night Agent quickly cemented itself as one of the best shows to binge watch on Netflix when its first season was released in March 2023. Now those with a Netflix subscription are just a few days away from the action thriller series returning for Season 2, with Gabriel Basso reprising lead protagonist Peter Sutherland. But could The Night Agent continue if Basso was no longer front and center? Both the actor, as well as showrunner Shawn Ryan, had to say on the topic.

What Gabriel Basso Said

In an extensive Variety profile covering his professional work and personal life, Gabriel Basso said that that while he’s currently “doing acting to the best of my ability,” he also doesn’t “feel like a productive part of society.” In fact, later on in the piece, he claimed he would eventually walk away from the entertainment industry, and when the interviewer asked if this would be in five or 10 years, the actor answered:

It’ll be sooner than that. The monopoly of youth is energy, and I think that I have to convert that into service in order to be legitimate as a person.

This isn’t to say that Gabriel Basso hasn’t been enjoying his recent acting projects, which include the Clint Eastwood-directed Juror #2 (which can be streamed with a Max subscription) and Kathryn Bigelow’s yet-to-be-titled upcoming Netflix movie that co-stars Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson. But he also has aspirations to do other things with his life, which has included getting a stonemason’s license and wanting to start a non-profit to better train police officers. So while it’s possible Basso could change his mind about walking away from acting, for now, it’s a matter of when rather than if.

Gabriel Basso is currently filming The Night Agent Season 3, so we can at least count on Peter Sutherland making it out of Season 2 alive. But after that, it doesn’t necessarily sound like Season 4 is in the cards for him, assuming the Netflix show keeps going until then. As Basso explained:

I’m probably going to take a break. I think Peter’s making decisions that have to happen. And it would be doing the audience a disservice if every season, he was fine.

He then added that “no one wants to see someone who’s untouchable,” and that he doesn’t want Peter Sutherland to become comparable to Captain America. So he may be just fine with either his character being killed off at some point.

What Shawn Ryan Said

None of this is new to Shawn Ryan, and he’s contemplated the possibility there will come a day that The Night Agent will need a new lead actor. He seems open to it though, saying:

The show is called ‘The Night Agent.’ It’s not called ‘The Gabriel Basso Show.’ So there may be a time when he decides he wants to do something else, and there’s a different night agent.

Whether The Night Agent would be able to retain the popularity it’s grabbed with Gabriel Basso front and center with a new actor is something that’d only be known once Season 4, or whatever new season that brings the status quo shift, premieres. For now though, there’s enough Peter Sutherland-led action to keep fans entertained in Season 2 and the yet-to-be-scheduled Season 3. As far as the former goes, in addition to Luciane Buchanan returning as Rose Larkin, Basso’s co-stars in Season 2 include Amanda Warren, Berto Colon, Louis Herthum, Arienne Mandi, Brittany Snow, Teddy Sears, Michael Malarkey, Keon Alexander, Navid Negahban and Rob Heaps, among others.

The Night Agent Season 2 premieres Thursday, January 23 on Netflix. Keep your eyes peeled for more coverage on the series, and look through our 2025 TV schedule if you’re curious about what non-Netflix small screen entertainment is premiering soon.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.