Done wondering about Netflix’s near-perfect spy thriller series after one season? The future’s finally set

Netflix has spent the past few years throwing a lot of spy dramas at the wall, and honestly, most of them just wind up forgotten in the algorithm soup. Plenty of sizzle, not much staying power. But now and then, you get a show like Legends that sneaks in under the radar and actually finds an audience — mostly the old-fashioned way: word of mouth.

Legends pulled in 3.4 million streams in its first week, before smashing past 10 million worldwide less than ten days later.

This year’s six-part drama from Neil Forsyth (the bloke behind The Gold and Guilt) came out in May — no fuss, no giant Netflix campaign. Instead, viewers gradually discovered this true-crime story about ordinary British Customs officers going deep undercover in the 90s drug wars. Its initial viewing figures were modest — just 3.4 million streams in that first stretch, putting it well behind the likes of Adolescence or Fool Me Once. But within a week, it had climbed straight to the top of Netflix’s global TV listings, hit Number One in 11 different countries (credit to Flix Patrol for that data), and kept its claws in the global Top 10 for about a month.

Not only a crowd-pleaser, Legends sits on a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score, which is frankly as high as anything Netflix has managed this year. With a reception like that, the big question wasn’t so much 'is it good enough for more episodes?' as 'does it even have story left to tell?' Season one seemed to wrap up its source material — The Betrayer, the 2022 memoir co-authored by actual undercover Customs man Guy Stanton — pretty thoroughly. Even Forsyth had said the show might work best as an anthology, with each series focused on a new operation instead of dragging out the same saga.

What Netflix has planned next

Turns out, Netflix wants more. The streamer has officially ordered a second season, with production going into gear in 2027 (that’s straight from Netflix’s own Tudum update). Season two won’t rehash the same events: it’ll move into the late 1990s, taking the original team after their brief return to civilian life and dumping them straight back into the deep end. The draw, Forsyth reckons, is in that time jump — the stakes got higher, the operations grew shadier and a lot more dangerous, and by all accounts, the scale went global.

Here’s how Neil Forsyth put it for Netflix’s press materials:

I'm delighted to have the opportunity to tell a new story in the fascinating and unique world that Legends offers, and to show just how dangerous, thrilling, and important their work became in the late 1990s.

The undercover operation codenamed Beta Projects was set up by the real-life HM Customs & Excise in the early '90s, lasting more than a decade and seeing Stanton undercover for eleven years in a thirty-five year career. He’s still using an alias, given how many dangerous people he put away, and now works in private security and training police in undercover work. So, if you thought the first lot of episodes covered it all — not by half. The late 90s saw the team dealing with much larger drug networks and plenty more peril, which probably explains why Netflix is betting there’s enough left in the tank for a whole new season.

The state of the cast

The core group — Tom Burke as Guy Stanton, Steve Coogan, and Hayley Squires — are all expected back. Official confirmations on further casting haven’t landed, but it would be odd if familiar faces like Aml Ameen and Charlotte Ritchie (she played Guy’s wife) didn’t turn up again, considering where series one left everyone. Given that filming’s not slated until 2027, expecting a release any time before 2028 is a mug’s game. In the meantime, all six episodes of the first series are up now if you need to catch up.

• Legends: six episodes, first released May 2026, based on The Betrayer memoir
• Renewed for season two, filming set for 2027, no release date yet (but don’t hold your breath for pre-2028)
• Main cast: Tom Burke, Steve Coogan, Hayley Squires; likely returns for Aml Ameen, Charlotte Ritchie
• Writer/creator: Neil Forsyth (The Gold, Guilt)
• Inspired by real-life Beta Projects undercover initiative
• Current Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%