If you claim to be a fan of whodunnits, but say you are not eagerly awaiting Poker Face Season 2, it would not take Charlie Cale to be able to catch you in that lie. The charming drifter (played by Natasha Lyonne) and her uncanny ability to naturally detect dishonesty made creator Rian Johnson’s Emmy-winning Peacock original TV show a hit in 2023 and a refreshing series for the detective genre, ensuring that we would see more darkly comic and mysterious adventures with Charlie at some point. Take a look at what there is to expect from Poker Face Season 2 in the following guide.
What Is The Poker Face Season 2 Premiere Date?
Easily the greatest mystery surrounding Poker Face Season 2 is when fans with a Peacock subscription will be able to watch it, as no official premiere date has been announced yet. We wish we could say that it will appear on our 2024 TV premiere schedule, but, then again, we have been prepared for an extended wait following Johnson’s comments about the latest Knives Out sequel, Wake Up Dead Man, being his top priority. Luckily, we do know that the wait will not last too much longer, based on information we will cover later.
Who Is In The Poker Face Season 2 Cast?
The Poker Face Season 1 cast boasted an astonishing who’s who of talented, legendary guest stars, including Chloë Sevigny, Nick Nolte, and frequent Rian Johnson collaborator Joseph Gordon-Levitt, to name a few. It looks like the guest stars joining Natasha Lyonne in the Poker Face Season 2 cast are no exception, based on the actors confirmed to appear so far.
Natasha Lyonne (Charlie Cale)
Returning to lead Poker Face is, of course, the only constant member of the cast, Natasha Lyonne, in her Emmy-nominated role as human lie detector on the run, Charlie Cale. The former Orange is the New Black cast member also has an upcoming Netflix movie called His Three Daughters hitting the platform in September 2024 and is joining the MCU with an undisclosed role in Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot, which is due in 2025.
Giancarlo Esposito
There is not word yet on who Giancarlo Esposito is playing Poker Face Season 2, but we would not be surprised if his character proves to be a foil for Charlie. From playing Gus Fring in the Breaking Bad cast to Moff Gideon on the Star Wars franchise spin-off series, The Mandalorian, bad guys are the five-time Emmy nominee’s bread and butter. Even his more notable upcoming roles — namely in Francis Ford Coppola’s new film, Megalopolis, and the upcoming superhero movie, Captain America: Brave New World — are supposed to be bad news.
Katie Holmes
Also appearing in Poker Face Season 2 in an undisclosed role is Katie Holmes, who rose to fame playing Joey Potter in the Dawson’s Creek cast before starring in movies like Go and Christopher Nolan’s 2005 live-action Batman movie, Batman Begins, as the original Rachel Dawes. Some of her more recent, notable small screen credits include Reelz Channel’s The Kennedys as Jackie Kennedy and a recurring role in Ray Donovan.
Kumail Nanjiani
As a blend of comedy and drama, it makes sense that Poker Face cast Kumail Nanjiani since the Pakistani-born comedian has mastered both in recent years. He earned an Academy Award nomination for writing the autobiographical 2015 dramedy, The Big Sick (which he also starred in), went on to join the MCU as Kingo in the 2021 Marvel movie, Eternals, and led Hulu’s true crime limited series, Welcome to Chippendales. Nanjiani is also going to be a part of Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building Season 4 cast and is starring in the upcoming horror movie, Thread: An Insidious Tale.
Gaby Hoffmann
Gaby Hoffmann is a successful former child star who still acts today, having started with classic movies like Field of Dreams, the John Candy movie favorite Uncle Buck, and Sleepless in Seattle. In more recent years, she has become better known for TV shows like one of the best Amazon Prime TV shows, Transparent, Max’s Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, and the 2024 Netflix limited series, Eric.
Cynthia Erivo
Also set to make a guest appearance on Poker Face Season 2 is Cynthia Erivo, who received Academy Award nominations for her lead performance in Harriet and for co-writing and performing the song stand-up for the 2020 biopic. The English actor and singer will next be seen playing Elphaba in 2024's Wicked, which is based on the Wizard of Oz-inspired musical, and its second half, which is due in 2025.
B.J. Novak
The Poker Face Season 2 is also featuring a veteran of NBC's The Office cast, B.J. Novak. The five-time Emmy-nominated actor, writer, and filmmaker recently wrote, directed, and starred in the dark comedy, Vengeance, from 2022.
Margo Martindale
Margo Martindale has the look of someone who could play an ally to Charlie but has proven to have the talent to play her enemy, too. For instance, she won two Emmys for playing a KGB handler Claudia on The Americans and another for playing the main villain from Justified Season 2.
John Mulaney
Former SNL writer John Mulaney's most notable acting roles include voicing Spider-Ham in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, playing himself in the Bupkis cast, and a guest spot in The Bear Season 3. The host of Netflix's Everybody's in LA and star of many great Netflix stand-up specials is slated to appear on Poker Face.
Ego Nwodim
Speaking of SNL alums, Ego Nwodim is currently part of the Saturday Night Live Season 50 cast and has been at Studio 8H since 2018. Her other acting credits include Good Burger 2 and Netflix's animated Good Times reboot.
Sam Richardson
Sam Richardson has an Emmy for guest starring on Ted Lasso but also has many notable starring roles, such as Richard Splett on Veep, the horror-comedy movie Werewolves Within, and Amazon Prime's action-packed time travel movie, The Tomorrow War.
Awkwafina
Natasha Lyonne previously worked with Awkwafina when she guest-starred on her Comedy Central sitcom, Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, and later directed an episode. Now, the Golden Globe-winning comedian – known for the great A24 movie The Farewell and playing Katy in Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings cast, to name a few, will reunite with Lyonne with a guest role on Poker Face.
Corey Hawkins
One of Corey Hawkins' earliest film credits was a Marvel movie (Iron Man 3) before his breakthrough performance as Dr. Dre in Straight Outta Compton led to roles in Kong: Skull Island, In the Heights, BlacKkKlansman, 2023's The Color Purple, and Netflix's The Piano Lesson. He will next add Poker Face to his list of notable TV credits, which also include The Walking Dead, 24: Legacy, and Survive.
Simon Rex
Prior to landing his acclaimed lead performance in A24's 2021 comedy, Red Rocket, Simon Rex was best known for parody movies like the third, fourth, and fifth Scary Movie installments and for starring in The WB's What I Like About You with Amanda Bynes. Since then, he has appeared in Peacock's Bupkis, director Zoe Kravitz's Blink Twice, and HBO's It's Florida, Man, most notably.
Cliff “Method Man” Smith
Fellow Bupkis guest star Cliff "Method Man" Smith is also set to guest star on Poker Face. The rapper has also shown his acting skills in the likes of Keanu with Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key and Starz's Power Book II: Ghost.
Sherry Cola
Comedian Sherry Cola has earned raves for her performances in Joy Ride, Shortcomings, and Netflix's Nobody Wants This.
Kevin Corrigan
Kevin Corrigan is one of those non-household names you see everywhere. You may recognize him from movies like True Romance and The King of Staten Island or his starring role on the sitcom, Grounded for Life.
What Poker Face Season 2 Will Be About
In the first season finale of Poker Face, Charlie managed to clear her own name in the murder of her former boss, Sterling Frost, Sr. (Ron Perlman), after being framed by the casino owner’s right-hand, Cliff Legrand (Benjamin Bratt). Unfortunately, she would soon find herself under the threat of another criminal organization led by Beatrix Hasp (Rhea Perlman), forcing her to, once again, ditch her phone and then go on the run.
Where the road will take Charlie next will be discovered in Poker Face Season 2, but we imagine that, with her luck, she is bound to stumble upon another batch of murder mysteries to solve. Similar to the classic mystery TV show, Columbo, each episode of the first season (save the finale) would begin with a full explanation of who was murdered, who committed the act, and how they accomplished it before Charlie even appears. We expect Season 2 to follow the same structure, but also hope to see a few interesting curve balls thrown at us here and there.
Tony Tost Is The New Showrunner
Replacing Nora and Lilla Zuckerman as the showunner for Poker Face Season 2 is Tony Tost. The producers are seeking other creative avenues, allowing the creator of USA's Damnation to step in.
Tost shared on Instagram that he was excited to help make the next season of one of his favorite series in a post he shared on the first day of filming. His feature-length directorial debut, Americana, premiered at SXSW in 2023.
Natasha Lyonne Is Directing A Poker Face Season 2 Episode
In addition to leading the Poker Face cast and serving as an executive producer, according to Deadline, Lyonne is also helming an episode from Season 2.
The actor previously directed one of the best episodes of Poker Face Season 1 — namely Episode 8, “The Orpheus Syndrome,” which boasts some of the series’ most stylistically unique choices, convincing us that her next directorial effort for the series is bound to a standout. Lyonne also helmed episodes of shows like Orange is the New Black and Russian Doll and Netflix original comedy specials Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine and Jacqueline Novak: Get on Your Knees.
Poker Face Began Filming July 2024
While we still do not know when to expect Poker Face Season 2 to drop, we do know that it is in production. Rian Johnson personally confirmed that the cameras started rolling on his detective series’ sophomore run in his Instagram story (via Deadline) on July 1, 2024.
How To Watch Poker Face Season 1
As previously established, Poker Face is available on Peacock and is an essential reason why the platform is one of the best streaming services to subscribe to, as far as we are concerned. If you are curious to check out the new season, we highly recommend you catch yourself up by streaming Season 1, or even purchasing it on Blu-ray.
Stream Poker Face on Peacock.
Buy Poker Face Season 1 on Blu-ray on Amazon.
The mystery of what to expect from Poker Face Season 2 is far from over, so be sure to check back here for further updates. We promise we are not lying.
