Tokyo Vice Filmmakers Talk Possible Season 3 After Max Cancellation

The series might have lost its distributor but it's not gone for good quite yet.

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Tokyo Vice fans were disappointed earlier this month when Max announced that it wouldn't be renewing the series for a Season 3, and while that would seemingly imply the end of the program, showrunner J.T. Rogers and executive producer Alan Poul aren't ready to call it quits just yet. The pair explained how, while HBO and Max were the streaming home for the series in a number of major markets, studio Fifth Season was responsible for bringing the show to life, with the global nature of the premise and the global popularity potentially allowing a Season 3 to move forward with another platform or network.

"Well, our partners on the show, Fifth Season, is the studio behind the show. And it's worth remembering that Fifth Season sells the show internationally," Poul confirmed to Variety. "Max exists in North America, most of South America and a few European territories, and the rest of the world is sold by our friends at Fifth Season. And they've sold very well. It's been a global hit. So we look to our partners. We haven't even really put our heads together yet, because this is all very new. But there are many territories in Europe and Asia and Africa and Australia that still will want the show, and we have to see how our partners, Fifth Season, are going to prepare to respond to them."

As far as where the series could be headed, Poul added, "I think we're keeping our options open. We love and trust our friends at Fifth Season. They're gonna guide us in that. Our goal right now is to support them as they work, and frankly, for me to just keep building the world as we wait."

The series was inspired by journalist Jake Adelstein's memoir of the same name, and while there were understandably more adventures to tell, Season 2 ended by wrapping up the storyline that opened the series premiere. 

"We were always told that there was no guarantee of a Season 3. So our only desire was for Season 2 to be as successful as possible," Poul expressed. "And to that end, I feel that it was well-marketed, because it reached a lot of people. And because we got, in my experience, what is for a second season of a drama series an extraordinary amount of press, at the launch of Season 2, for which we were very proud."

Rogers continued, "I mean, it's really interesting making TV now. We'll see as this great contraction continues, but off of what Alan said, just being so pleased that we registered, let alone celebrated, amid the ocean of content that sort of exploded. A lot of the work that was pent up because of COVID. It's the first thing I've done where strangers are stopping me in the streets: 'What happens to so-and-so?' From all walks of life."

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Stay tuned for updates on a possible Season 3 of Tokyo Vice.

Would you like to see the series get revived? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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