Tokyo Vice has slid a bit far under the radar in the vast television landscape these days, but it’s an excellent series that has impressed critics and fans, especially in season 2 here on Max.
The Japanese crime drama starring Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe just recently wrapped up its second season, which scored a great 92% from both critics and fans on Rotten Tomatoes.
Fans are dying to hear if season 3 is coming and there are some updates on that front, albeit no actual renewal yet. This is Max we’re talking about, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery which has been offing shows and movies left and right to save money, so very little seems safe. And that probably includes Tokyo Vice if not enough people are watching, at least according to WB.
The update is that not only are they ready to do a season 2, but they are already mapping out the story for the third season even without Max calling them up for a greenlight. Here’s showrunner JT Rogers via Collider:
“On set it was just so wonderful, all through Season 2 people from Ken Watanabe to key grips, everyone would come up and say, as if it was a secret, ‘Are we getting to do more?’ And I was like, ‘Let’s just finish this.’ But yeah, I have the story mapped out going forward. We would love to do it.”
They believe that the second season has boosted the show’s fortunes, but it may take longer for the decision to be made because the series was more spread out this time. And it still took months for Max to decide to renew the show after season 1.
While HBO still produces good shows, it’s a bit out of its golden age at this point, so getting all the quality series on Max that WB can would be wise, and that includes Tokyo Vice. We don’t know how much Tokyo Vice costs per episode, but its production value is excellent and it films…in Tokyo, so I doubt it’s the cheapest offering they have.
The idea is that if the show is renewed soon it could start filming later this year, even if most of the shooting would be done in 2025. That would mean perhaps a lengthy wait for a third season, probably at least a year and a half, but I’m sure fans would return regardless, as it was almost two years between seasons this time around. Hopefully we’ll have more concrete answers soon.
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