The stylish finance drama Industry has always been a bit of a sleeper hit—those who love it really love it, and given the current Succession-sized void in the television landscape, the HBO series’s eight-episode forthcoming third season is poised to have its biggest run yet.
A lot of that is due to a splashy new cast member: Game of Thrones star Kit Harington is stepping into a leading role. Yes, Jon Snow is heading from The Wall to the equally cutthroat world of international banking. Harington plays charismatic founder Sir Henry Muck, the man behind green tech energy company Lumi, headed for a buzzy IPO.
Returning regulars Harry Lawtey (Robert) and Marisa Abela (Yasmin) are still employed by the high-pressure, fictional London-based firm Pierpoint & Co., and are at the center of the new deal with Muck. Myha’la Herrold (Harper), meanwhile, whom the show has always centered on, has left behind Pierpoint and her problematic mentor, Eric (Ken Leung). Still, she’s “eager to get back into the addictive thrill of finance, and finds an unlikely partner in FutureDawn portfolio manager Petra Koenig (Barry’s Sarah Goldberg),” per an official description.
The ins and outs of finance jargon might not seem like it would make for thrilling TV, but like any stressful yet enthralling workplace drama (see: The Bear) it’s the characters that have always served as the heart of Industry—and in this case, the seedier, unethical, and downright sex and drug-fueled elements of the world they’re trying so desperately to break into. In the first trailer for the season, Muck immediately wipes clean from the internet an embarrassing story about Yasmin, hinting at the reach of his power—though subsequent moments quickly show he may not be all he’s advertising himself to be. The rest of the clip presents the core cast continuing to strive for success at all costs, including, possibly, their sanity:
Last month, Harington told Vulture that he had binge-watched the series (which first premiered in November 2020) during the pandemic, and reached out to HBO himself about auditioning for the role of Muck. “In Game of Thrones, we had actors come in who were fans of the show,” he said. “Now it was the other way around and I was fanboying over the actors in Industry.” Who can blame him?
Industry season three will premiere on HBO and Max on Sunday, August 11 at 10pm ET with new episodes each week.
