One of Ireland’s best shows set to return for new season

A new report claims the crime drama will be returning to screens.

Bron Studios, the production company behind the series, declared bankruptcy in 2023, putting the show's future in major doubt.

The finale of the second season of Kin aired on RTÉ in May 2023. Since then, a third season has not been greenlit, and the series' main cast were released from their contracts.

In the interim, however, the crime drama was added to BBC iPlayer and Netflix, garnering an even larger fan base.

Now, The Irish Sun is claiming that the RTÉ and the BBC are joining forces to revive Kin.

The outlet reports that lead actor Charlie Cox (Daredevil) will return to Ireland in July to film a six-episode third season, with a fourth and fifth season likely to follow.

This would coincide with the co-creators of Kin's initial plans for the show.

The Irish Sun also states that all of Kin’s main stars were contacted in recent weeks and asked about their availability for shooting in July, and that all of them said they would return.

The outlet says season 3 of the crime drama will air on RTÉ in Spring 2027.

In a statement to The Irish Mirror, responding to The Irish Sun's report, an RTÉ spokesperson said: "Kin has been an extremely popular series for RTÉ, and if and when there's something to announce, we will be delighted to do so."

Co-created by Peter McKenna and Ciarán Donnelly, the show's first season premiered in 2021, telling the story of the Irish crime family, the Kinsellas (led by Aidan Gillen), as they embark on a gangland war with an international cartel (represented by Ciarán Hinds).

Set in Dublin, the first two seasons also starred Clare Dunne, Danielle Galligan, Emmett Scanlan, Francis Magee, Sam Keeley and Yasmin Seky.

In December 2024, JOE interviewed co-creator Donnelly and asked if Kin season three was happening.

"Well, this is where I have to be careful," Donnelly replied, noting at the time that it was a "very complex" situation.

"There is work going on to try and make a third season happen. Whether it will or not very much remains a question mark. It's not because nobody wants to do it," he added.

"This is public knowledge, there's no secret here. But the main financier of the show Bron Studios went bust.

"So initially… all the work I'd come up with, all that IP if you like, to get the thing financed - what you have to do is sign over your IP. Because the financier has to own it basically.

"They have to have the rights to it so that they can legitimately go and finance the thing. They can't finance something they don't own. So they went bust and the rights are tied up in the sale of assets.

"That's basically the problem. Otherwise I'm pretty sure there would be a third season happening right now, if it hadn't already happened."

Donnelly also said that as a consequence of this, the actors in Kin's contracts would need to be renegotiated if a season three were to happen.

"The actors remain under option for a certain amount of time after the end of a season for a show, " he explained.

"So, for example, Aidan [Gillen] and Clare [Dunne] and Charlie [Cox] - the producers have maybe a year to sort of get the next season going under agreed terms. And then if it doesn't happen within that year, you don't have that agreement anymore.

"So you sort of have to say: 'Well, where are they in the world, where are they in their schedules,' and then everything has to be renegotiated."

Summing up, the co-creator said: "We know there's an enthusiasm from RTÉ. We know there's an enthusiasm from audiences. And it's a thing we'd all love to happen. But it's probably got a bit more to do with lawyers and things now."

JOE then asked Donnelly if he is hopeful the situation can be worked out.

In response, he said: "Yeah, we'd love it. The plan was always five seasons at least."

He also stated: "I think there is a big audience for it. There's an enthusiasm for it. It was a good show. It was a really good show.

"So yeah, it sort of breaks our hearts that there was only two seasons of it. It was really meant to be five."

Kin's two seasons are streaming on Netflix and the RTÉ Player.