Irish TV show Kin hit screens after season two was released across the UK last week.

Season one was filmed way back in 2021 by Irish TV station RTÉ but the series has since returned for season two after the rights for the show were acquired by the BBC.

The new season sees the Kinsellas at the top of the crime game in Dublin, but facing a fresh enemy even more deadly than their last adversary.

Written by Peter McKenna and Ciaran Donnelly, the show includes actors Aidan Gillen, best known for his roles in Game of Thrones and Ciarán Hinds who featured in Academy Award-winning film Belfast.

Sue Deeks, head of BBC programme acquisition, said: “Anchored by a tremendous cast, Kin is a powerful and intense story of love, grief, family and crime, and it’s devastating ramifications.”

Will there be a Kin season 3?

It is not yet clear if there will be a Kin season 3.

According to The Radio Times, it was reported that a third season had already been filmed in summer 2022, and that it would therefore be released in 2024, with a “fourth season also on the cards”.

After this report, in August 2023, the show’s Irish broadcaster RTÉ said in a statement: “RTÉ would very much like Kin to return and continues to work with our international partners to make it happen.

“We hope to have a further update in relation to season 3 in the coming months.”

This statement was offered because the show’s future was thrown into doubt, as production company Bron Studios filed for bankruptcy.

The BBC has since acquired the rights to the show, so it remains unclear if this alleged series 3 filmed in the summer 2022 would be part of the BBC production.

In January 2024, star Emmett J Scanlan said: “I hope there will be a season 3, I really do. That’s kind of the energy I like to marinate in anyway. I’m not a negative person.

“I genuinely have no answer whether it’s gonna happen or not, but there are rumblings around the place, positive rumblings, where it might find a new home, it might find a backer and it might go into a season 3.

“It certainly has the potential of going to season 3 and maybe 4, who knows what will happen? When the credits rolled [at the end of the second season] I thought, ‘It can’t end like that.’ So fingers crossed.”

Who is in the cast of Kin?

English actor Charlie Cox will feature in the show and is best known for portraying Matt Murdock in the television series Daredevil, while featuring in other parts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Cox has also portrayed also Owen Sleater in the second and third seasons of critically acclaimed HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and Jonathan Hellyer Jones in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything.

Speaking to Digital Spy last year about Kin, Cox talked about how close the cast became during filming: “I was really so impressed with all the other actors, and the family dynamic that we were able to create.

“I remember getting on set with everyone, and being like: ‘I believe us as a family. I see it. I see the dynamics. I recognise the people from my own family. I see how they’ve become like that.’ I thought the casting was tremendous on it.”

Cox will play gangland leader Jimmy Kinsella’s brother, Michael, alongside Clare Dunne who portrays Amanda Kinsella.

Dunne is known in Ireland for her consecutive roles in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, while in the UK she is known for portraying Victoria in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Another Irish actor, Emmett J Scanlan will play hard-man Jimmy Kinsella. The 45-year-old first rose to prominence as Brendan Brady in hit soap, Hollyoaks, before starring in The Fall with Jamie Dornan in 2014.

Aidan Gillen will play head of the Kinsella drug cartel, Frank. The show’s star is the recipient of three Irish Film & Television Awards and is best known for his roles in Game of Thrones and Peaky Blinders.

Other actors in the show include:

• Sam Keeley as Eric ‘Viking’ Kinsella
• Maria Doyle Kennedy as Bridget ‘Birdy’ Goggins
• Ciarán Hinds as Eamon Cunningham
• Yasmin Seky as Nikita Murphy
• Cian Fitzsimons as Jamie Kinsella
• Mark Mckenna Jr as Anthony Kinsella
• Hannah Adeogun as Anna Areoye

How can I watch Kin in the UK?

The critically acclaimed series’s season two will feature eight episodes, which first aired on BBC One Tuesday 13 February, with the first two episodes airing at 10.40pm and 11.30pm.

For those who missed the show’s return, you can catch all eight episodes of both season one and two on the BBC iPlayer.