Despite Poker Face earning critical acclaim in its two seasons, Peacock announced last November that it was cancelling the comedy-drama mystery series. And yet, this doesn’t necessarily spell the end of Poker Face, though if it does come back, it’ll look a lot different. Efforts are underway to not only set up the Rian Johnson-created show on another streaming service, but to also have Peter Dinklage take over the role of Charlie Cale from Natasha Lyonne. The Game of Thrones star has now shared an update on how these wild revival plans are going.
Dinklage addressed the possibility of Poker Face Season 3 happening while chatting with Deadline. For what he’s most recently heard from Johnson, the biggest hurdle in the moment is find the series a new home, with the actor sharing:
It’s in the works. What I hear is that it’s just hard to take it from one home to put it in another. It’s the complicated nature of that, I believe. But Rian is a creative genius and whatever he wants to write, I would love to be a part of that.
For any other TV show, having a male actor taking over playing the same lead role that an actress previously occupied would be a daunting and convoluted prospect, but evidently Peter Dinklage and Rian Johnson aren’t sweating it. Instead, the main holdup on bringing Poker Face back remains figuring out where the show will be placed next. Assuming that can be worked out, I’m curious if Peacock will still be able to keep the first two seasons on its platform, or if this will be a permanent move situation, like how the Marvel TV shows that were initially released on Netflix can now only be exclusively streamed with a Disney+ subscription.
In any case, Peter Dinklage joked that the series can be renamed to Roulette Face if necessary. It doesn’t have the same ring as Poker Face, but if that’s what it takes to overcome certain legal complications, then I’ll make do. Though best known in the TV realm for playing Tyrion Lannister for the entirety of Game of Thrones, Dinklage was most recently a series regular on the first season of Dexter: Resurrection, though let’s just say we won’t be seeing his character again whenever Season 2 arrives.
Aside from the streaming service transition, the biggest mystery surrounding Poker Face’s future is how the changeover from Natasha Lyonne to Peter Dinklage as Charlie Cale is going to work. Will this next season somehow occupy the same reality as the first two seasons, or will Poker Face become more like an anthology series where the only thing Dinklage’s Charlie shares in common with Lyonne’s is the innate ability to tell when people are lying. As for why Lyonne won’t continue playing Charlie, she said last month it’s because she wants to focus on directing movies.
Hopefully we know by the end of 2026 if Poker Face will live on or not. I’m eager to learn what reason Rian Johnson comes up with for Charlie Cale’s baffling transformation, as well as for Peter Dinklage’s version to solve his own assortment of unique crimes. Fingers crossed one of the other big streaming services will welcome Poker Face into its library of content.
