The BBC's much-loved show, Industry, all about the London banking scene and the gruelling pressures on its employees, is returning – and the teaser trailer has been released.
We may have to wait until autumn to watch the second season, but we can already tell it's going to be worth the wait…
Since the BBC dropped all remaining episodes of hit show Industry on iPlayer at the end of last year, it's been the topic of conversation dominating our WhatsApp chats (apart from, you know, a certain vaccine you may have heard about).
The second series was finally confirmed by HBO in December, with Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of HBO Programming, saying: "It’s exciting to see fans embrace these young graduates, and we join them in anticipation of what’s in store for season two. We also send a big thanks to our partners at Bad Wolf and BBC."
The series, which is basically a cross between Billions and Skins, follows a group of grads as they try to make it in the extremely demanding, cut-throat world of London's financial sector. By exploring their work lives as well as their – umm, very intimate – private lives, the show explores themes of gender, race, class and sexuality.
As summarised by the official BBC synopsis, Industry "follows a group of hungry, young graduates competing for a limited number of permanent positions at Pierpoint & Co., a leading bank in London, while being thrown head-first into the exhilarating world of international finance".
According to the official BBC press release for season 2, this time around the more junior characters – who in the first season were all referred to as Grads – will "no longer allowed to hide behind their graduate status.”
We not convinced they had any room to “hide” in the first season, to be honest – so we're eager to see what this means! Here's everything we know about season two (season one spoilers incoming! )
Is there a trailer for Industry season 2?
As we said… yes! The teaser trailer for Industry season 2 has just come out, and it's definitely whetting our appetites for the upcoming next instalment of the show.
Bookmarked by Myha’la Herrold's character, Harper Stern, at the beginning and end, the trailer opens with Harper turning up AirPods in and presumably lacking a few friends after her backstabbing in season 1, ready to resume her career at Pierpoint & Co as a full-time employee.
“You know what they say about flying close to the sun… it gives off a lovely light”, is her opening gambit in a voiceover – and we reckon a reference to Greek mythological character Icarus, who died from his aspiration after flying too close to the sun, is everything we need to know about whether Harper's traded in her ruthless determination to get ahead at any cost.
We also see Robert Spearing, played by Harry Lawtey, up to his usual self-destructive behaviour; Eric, playing by Ken Leung, trying to restore the pecking order with Harper – we loved his line, "You don't work with me, you work for me) and a shot of some steamy, BSDM style sex (although between whom we're not sure…). Suffice to say, we're excited.
What's the Industry season 2 release date?
While there's no official release date just yet, we know Industry will be landing on HBO and the BBC in autumn 2022.
Who will be in Season 2 cast?
Season 2 will see much of the original cast returning, including ‘Graduates’ Myha’la Herrold as Harper Stern and Harry Lawtey as Robert Spearing (both of whom are featured prominently in the trailer), together with Marisa Abela as Yasmin Kara-Hanani, and David Jonsson as Gus Sackey; and ‘Management’ Ken Leung as Eric Tao and Conor MacNeill as Kenny Kilbane.
And that's just as well – because we had a lot of questions after season one. What's next for Harper? Will she work alongside Eric, or with Sara to finally change the toxic office culture? What about Yasmin and Harper, the two friends we were rooting for from the start? Will they make it up? Will Kenny finally stop being such a colossal t*at? What about Theo and Gus's relationship? Will Robert and Yasmin just bang already and get it over with? And will somebody finally explain all this financial jargon to us? It's notable that Daria Greenock, played by Freya Mavor, is not in this season's cast line-up – following Harper's betrayal of her one-time mentor in the first season.
But the return of the season one regulars isn't all we have to update you on – there are also a whole host of new cast members joining. According to a BBC statement, there will be a number of “new recruits" to the Pierpoint & Co. bank, including Jay Duplass (The Chair), who will play Jesse Boom, “a reputable hedge fund manager who has just emigrated to the UK”. Also joining will be Anatomy of a Scandal actor Sonny Poon Tip as Leo Bloom, who is “the wayward son of a reputable hedge fund manager”. There's also Katrine De Candole as Celeste Pacquet, a multilingual wealth manager. We anticipate these new recruit characters presenting some fierce competition to shake the company dynamic up.
We will also see For All Mankind's Alex Alomar Akpobome starring as a handsome, charismatic “rising star” Executive Director from New York, together with Adam Levy (The Witcher), playing Yasmin's playboy father Charles Hanani and Indy Lewis, who you might recognise from a small role in season one, playing Venetia Berens – a new recruit to the Foreign Exchange Sales Desk where Yasmin works.
What will Season 2 be about?
If you thought season 1 made the banking world look like a pressure cooker, it seems that the second season is one step up.
The BBC press release statement reads: “The market is ripping, and Pierpoint's back to work or else mandate has the trading floor more charged up and paranoid than ever. New U.S. management will be gasoline on the flames - an injection of cross Atlantic energy that lights a fire under each and every employee."
We also now know that the new season will choose to integrate a “post-Covid” setting into the storyline: "Now Harper, Yasmin and Robert must drive new business and make new alliances both in and out of the office as Pierpoint and its junior bankers seek to take every advantage in a post-Covid world.”
It will be a gripping follow-up from season one, which ended on RIF (reduction in force) day where, after weeks of casual hook-ups, drug binges and all-nighters in between schmoozing clients and trying to make the company money, it was the grads' final turn to prove themselves worthy of keeping their desk.
The grads must make presentations to the hiring team, explaining why they deserve a place at the Pierpoint table. Gus (David Jonsson) has seemingly had it with the corporate world, angry at the company for not taking responsibility for Hari's (Nabhaan Rizwan) death. Robert is all smooth-talk, but as he explains that he's failed to secure any business, his nose starts to bleed (someone needs to tell this guy to lay off the drugs).
Yasmin (Marisa Abela) and Harper's (Myha'la Herrold) relationship begins to spiral. Paranoid Harper asks Yasmin why she was speaking to her boss, Daria, and Yasmin assures her that any success of hers shouldn't detract from Harper's, saying that Harper's friendship is the best thing that's happened to her at Pierpoint.
She stars in the BBC adaption of the well-received memoir.
It's clear that Harper doesn't quite feel the same. When executive Bill drags Harper to a meeting with her disgraced boss Eric (who locked her in a meeting room, as you do), he asks her to retract her accusation, and strongly implies that doing so will work in her favour. When Harper is offered the job by executive Sara, she says she's hoping to change the office culture.
But cut to the next scene and when Yasmin comes over to Harper's desk to celebrate, it becomes clear that Harper has sold out Daria to give Eric back his job. “Daria’s gone and Eric’s coming back,” Harper tells Yasmin, who is livid, calling her unbelievable and selfish. In response, Harper calls her "weak and a f*cking hypocrite."
The final moments show Harper opening the notebook which Yasmin previously gave her as a gift, with the message: "Here’s to (y)our future, Love you, Yasmin".
