Poker Face just got a bad beat, and it’s not good news for folks with a Peacock subscription. The mystery-of-the-week series led by Natasha Lyonne won’t return for Season 3 on the streaming service, even after a solid sophomore run and plenty of critical love. That would usually be the end of the story, except there’s a crazy curveball: the team behind the show is already shopping a new two-season plan built around Peter Dinklage.
Series creator Rian Johnson, partner Ram Bergman, producer MRC, and Lyonne (who remains an EP) are taking Poker Face to other buyers with an eye on continuity and a bold twist: Peter Dinklage would step into the role of human lie detector Charlie Cale if the show finds a new home, per Deadline. Johnson and Lyonne said they’ve been planning the next phase since writing the Season 2 finale and teased that Charlie could soon be “back on that open highway.”
For newcomers, Poker Face is Johnson’s riff on a classic, Columbo-style format, with each episode presenting a murder that you watch happen, and then follows Charlie, an ex-casino employee with an unfakeable knack for calling lies, as she drifts town to town in a ’69 Plymouth Barracuda and solves what the locals can’t. The first season drew raves and awards attention; Season 2 remained one of Peacock’s beloved series, though ratings were off a bit and costs were high, according to Deadline’s reporting.
The “wild subplot” here is the proposed baton pass. Dinklage wouldn’t play a new character; he’d inherit Charlie Cale, with Johnson hoping to rotate the lead every couple of years.
TV has precedent for this kind of identity handoff (think Doctor Who, The Crown, even the mid-run swap on Bewitched), and the franchise’s case-of-the-week structure makes it easier to pull off than most. It’s also very Johnson, who, with hisKnives Out films, changes ensembles around Daniel Craig every time, and he’s long been fascinated with truth-telling as a storytelling engine.
There are still questions. It isn’t clear whether Season 2 showrunner Tony Tost would continue. Distribution is TBD as CAA takes the package to market. But the creative center remains intact, that being this is Johnson’s baby, and the outlet notes he’s prepared to write and direct as needed to steady the retooled version. Lyonne, busy with projects under her Animal banner, would stay on behind the scenes as well.
From a business angle, the move makes sense. Prestige guest stars, travel, and production design aren’t cheap, and asking a new partner for a two-season order provides stability for casting and scheduling while signaling confidence. From a fan angle, the pitch is pretty simple: keep the format and tone, keep Charlie’s gift, but swap the face. Dinklage—fresh off films like Wicked, Roofman, the Toxic Avenger, and a stint on Dexter: Resurrection—brings a different energy and comic bite that could change how episodes play without breaking the show. It’s a weird angle, but one that could definitely work.
Peacock passed on Season 3, but Poker Face isn’t folding and accepting a place on 2025’s canceled shows list just yet. If the plan lands, the next iteration will test how elastic Charlie Cale really is as a character, and I’m here to see it.
We’ll have to see how this wild idea plays out. Meanwhile, Rian Johnson has another Knives Out entry, Wake Up Dead Man, on the 2025 movie schedule. It hits theaters on November 26 and streams for anyone with a Netflix subscription on December 12. You can also watch the first two seasons of Poker Face on Peacock.
