Netflix’s The Night Agent show is based on Matthew Quirk’s novel of the same name, raising the question of how many more stories featuring Peter Sutherland there are. Following the astonishing success of The Night Agent season 1 – the show was at the top of Netflix’s most-watched television series in the first half of 2023 –, The Night Agent was renewed for season 2. There are plenty of popular shows based on novels, and the Netflix action thriller series developed by Shawn Ryan will face a curious challenge in that regard now that it is returning for a new season.
The Night Agent’s Netflix viewership numbers were very impressive and made it clear why a second season is happening. That said, apart from the sequence in which Peter receives his first official mission as a Night Agent, season 1 was relatively self-contained and did not necessarily ask for a continuation. The Night Agent novel was also supposed to be a standalone Peter Sutherland story, which will not be the case for the Netflix adaptation now that the show is among the streamer’s most popular titles.
Title | Release Date | Hours Viewed |
|---|---|---|
The Night Agent: Season 1 | 2023-03-23 | 812.100.000 |
Ginny & Georgia: Season 2 | 2023-01-05 | 665.100.000 |
The Glory: Season 1 // 더 글로리: 시즌 1 | 2022-12-30 | 622.800.000 |
Wednesday: Season 1 | 2022-11-23 | 507.700.000 |
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story | 2023-05-04 | 503.000.000 |
There Is Only One The Night Agent Book
Peter Sutherland doesn’t appear in other novels
Matthew Quirk has only written one The Night Agent book as of 2024. Published in January 2019, The Night Agent introduced the character of Peter Sutherland, the son of a disgraced FBI agent, who saw himself caught in a major conspiracy involving the sins of his father and the White House. While there are many differences between Netflix’s The Night Agent and the book, including who was behind the metro bombing and how Peter learns the truth, the series was a relatively faithful adaptation of the source material.
However, unlike the source material, The Night Agent season 1’s ending included a sequel hook hook setting up season 2. Considering how successful the show was for Netflix, it is no surprise that The Night Agent will return for a new season 2 even though there is not a second Peter Sutherland book. Whether there will ever be a sequel to the novel remains to be seen, but Peter’s story is continuing past the metro bombing case in the Netflix show. This makes The Night Agent season 2 more unpredictable.
The Night Agent Season 2 Will Have To Be An Original Story
The Netflix show is going beyond the source material
The Night Agent is one of the most recent examples of a successful book-to-screen adaptation of an action thriller novel. However, unlike shows such as Reacher or Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Night Agent will not have other books to cover at its disposal. In other words, season 2 will have to be an original story, taking Peter and Rose into a new adventure that will not be based on any previous source material. Little is known about the plot of The Night Agent season 2, but season 1 ended with Peter becoming a Night Agent.
The Night Agent’s 10 Biggest Unanswered Questions & Mysteries
The Night Agent season 1 finale wrapped up its biggest storylines, but a number of loose ends and unanswered questions remain for season 2 to explore.
The end of season 1 perfectly sets up The Night Agent becoming an anthology series in which each new season can see Peter working on a different case or uncovering a different conspiracy. This anthology structure has worked very well for Jack Ryan and Reacher and can be applied to The Night Agent even if there are no other books starring Peter Sutherland. Those familiar with the original novel could tell in which direction season 1’s story was going, but now season 2 can be surprising to all audiences since it will be an original adventure.
Could The Night Agent Season 2 Be Based On Matthew Quirk’s Other Novels?
Matthew Quirk has written eight novels in total
In addition to The Night Agent, Quirk has written seven other novels that fall into the action thriller and political drama genres. However, none of them are tied to The Night Agent and instead follow different protagonists. Two of those protagonists, Mike Ford and John Hayes, have appeared in two books each, whereas all the others have appeared in one story only. Although bringing elements from Quirk’s other novels into The Night Agent season 2 could work, this will likely not be the case, especially if there were to be plans to fully adapt those novels in the future.
Instead, The Night Agent season 2’s story can benefit from not having a specific source material behind it, which would set it apart from similar series like Reacher. Although trying to predict the story of a show based on the novels it is based on can be fun, it can also make the final product more predictable and lead to tiresome comparisons between the adaptation and the source material. Peter’s story can go in many different directions, and if season 2 is as successful as the first one, The Night Agent show could become a franchise of its own.
Watch The Night Agent on Netflix
The Night Agent
- Release Date
- March 23, 2023
- Cast
- Gabriel Basso , Luciane Buchanan , Hong Chau , Sarah Desjardins , Fola Evans-Akingbola , Eve Harlow , Enrique Murciano , Phoenix Raei , DB Woodside
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
- Showrunner
- Shawn Ryan
