The Defeated, which also goes by Shadowplay, was a pretty unique show. While it joined the vast ranks of countless other World War II-set productions, it had a mystery-thriller twist to help it stand out.
Let’s face it, it’s not every year history buffs and police procedural fans can converge and watch something where a criminal conspiracy unfolds in war-torn Europe.
However, since its release in 2021 on Netflix – the show had an earlier regional release in Germany in 2020 – fans have been left to wonder if they will ever see a continuation of Max (Taylor Kitsch) and Moritz McLaughlin’s (Logan Marshall-Green) story. To be frank, it’s a bit complicated to give an affirmative answer to whether or not The Defeated is getting a second season, or whether it’s even going to get the chance to finish telling its initial story.
The Defeated has been in an awkward limbo for a long time
In April 2019, when The Defeated and its cast was first announced, Deadline reported that the show’s creator, Måns Mårlind, envisioned it as “a 16-episode series, told in two chapters.” The outlet reported that filming for the first eight episodes was to commence that same month, with the back half supposed to shoot in 2020. Obviously, those plans likely had to be discarded or shifted around due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In early 2021, Logan Marshall-Green posted a behind-the-scenes Instagram selfie, bloodied up and garbed in uniform, with the tag: “the defeated #BTS.” However, after that, there has been little to no news regarding more installments of The Defeated. After the show’s Netflix debut in 2021, TV Insider wrote an article about a second season and noted that “with production underway earlier this year in the Czech Republic, viewers can most likely expect Season 2 to premiere sometime in 2022.”
A quick search on the IMDb pages of the major players – Kitsch, Michael C. Hall (who played the shady Vice-consul, Tom Franklin), and Nina Hoss (who portrayed the honest cop, Elsie Garten) – shows zero indication that any sort of production has begun regarding the second half. This shouldn’t be taken as definite proof of its fate, though. If anything, it only invites more speculation and confusion.
Overall, according to the original reports, The Defeated was likely never meant to be some grand multi-season mystery escapade in post-war Berlin (though that sounds incredibly amazing; who doesn’t want to see a weekly Law & Order whodunit set in Europe right after World War II?).
However, it’s nearly 2024, and there still have not been any official updates. This means it’s possible fans may never even get to see how this two-chapter story ultimately unfolds.