Keira Knightleys Black Doves Season 3 Gets Promising Update From Lead Star

The following article includes ‘Black Doves’ Season 2 spoilers.Season 2 of Black Doves has only just premiered on Nov. 5, yet audiences are already eager for the near-perfect spy thriller to return for a third season. And with all the drama this season has delivered, it’s easy to see why.

With Season 2 now streaming on Netflix, it’s no secret that the show takes a closer look at Reed’s backstory. Keira Knightley and creator Joe Barton recently sat down with Variety to discuss why Barton chose to put the spotlight on Reed this season, as well as the one character Knightley really wanted to kill but never got the chance to.

To catch you up, Season 2 of Black Doves centers on Helen (Knightley) as she tries to balance her personal and professional lives after her handler, Reed (Sarah Lancashire), mysteriously disappears. Meanwhile, Sam (Ben Whishaw) becomes entangled with Kestrel, a rival spy organization threatening to expose Helen’s past. The season ultimately reveals that Kestrel’s leader, Vita (Sylvia Hoeks), is Reed’s long-lost daughter, who seeks revenge for her mother’s betrayal decades earlier. Her plan culminates in an attack during Wallace’s peace summit, putting Helen’s family and the Black Doves at risk. By the finale, Vita is dead, Reed is captured, Sam abandons his life as an assassin, and Helen is left facing the fallout of her secret identity being exposed.

While Season 1 primarily focused on Helen, audiences were still left knowing relatively little about the titular character. However, Barton’s decision to explore Reed’s history in Season 2 wasn’t necessarily part of a larger plan. Instead, it emerged organically during the writing process. As Barton told Variety, “It organically came out the storytelling process of Reed’s backstory, and the idea of the sins of the past coming forward and everyone suffering for them. And I wanted to do a ‘Berlin in the ’80s’ spy thing.”

If audiences think Knightley was invested in Helen getting revenge, they should hear what the actress really had to say. When Season 1 wrapped, Knightley’s one request was that Helen get to kill Dani (Agnes O’Casey), who tried to kill her and seduce her husband. Barton recalled Knightley saying, “I don’t think it’s OK that she tried to f**k my husband and kill me on Christmas Eve.”

Although Barton initially wanted to keep Dani alive so Helen could eventually kill her, the plan fell apart for reasons outside his control. While on set with O’Casey, Barton recalled discussing the character’s future, only for the actress to reveal that she had accepted another job and wouldn’t be available for another season. Barton was disappointed, as he loved working with O’Casey and felt there was still plenty of potential for her character.

Fortunately for Knightley, her character Helen did get to kill someone in Season 2, just not the person she had in mind. Instead, Barton gave that moment to Gabrielle Creevy’s Eleanor, who throws a grenade into an elevator, killing Dani. When the subject came up during the interview, Knightley jokingly lamented that she never got her revenge, saying, “He [Barton] made me shoot the nanny instead!”

As for a potential third season, Barton is already in the writers’ room, but an official renewal is still in Netflix’s hands. With Season 2 earning a 94% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, there’s plenty of reason to hope we’ll see Helen return for another season. Black Doves is available to stream on Netflix.

Release Date

December 5, 2024

Network

Netflix

Directors

Lisa Gunning