“The Recruit” stands among several popular spy adventure series available on Netflix. The show centers on Owen Hendricks, portrayed by Noah Centineo, who is a new attorney at the CIA. His seemingly straightforward task of dealing with a letter from a former asset plunges him into a complex journey that takes him across the globe and through unexpected predicaments he could never have foreseen in law school. In the second season, Owen travels to South Korea, becoming entangled in an espionage scheme that leaves “The Recruit” ending with a gripping cliffhanger.

Despite putting forth a strong second season performance with a commendable 87% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes—improving by almost 20% compared to its first season—”The Recruit” was canceled. Netflix made this decision in less than two months post-release, not allowing the series much time to attract a larger audience or achieve greater popularity. While this cancellation might be unexpected for some, there are concrete reasons that led to the end of Noah Centineo’s “The Recruit” on Netflix.

The show’s cancellation was primarily due to two factors: Netflix has multiple programs with storylines similar to “The Recruit,” and it wasn’t drawing strong viewership in comparison. “The Night Agent,” released roughly four months after “The Recruit,” achieved nearly triple the viewership and consistently outranked it on Netflix’s Top 10 list. For instance, in its first four days of streaming, “The Recruit” Season 2 attracted 5.9 million viewers, whereas “The Night Agent” amassed 15.2 million viewers for its second season in a comparable timeframe.

In addition to the fact that it had to compete against “The Night Agent” and other shows, there were other early signs that “The Recruit” might not live past Season 2: The initial episode order was downsized from eight to six, giving the creative team less time to tell a complete story. Deadline confirmed that the decision came directly from Netflix. Six episode seasons aren’t common when it comes to Netflix, and this move may have hinted that the streaming giant was making early considerations on which shows to renew and which ones to can.

While promoting the A24 film “Warfare,” Noah Centineo shared his thoughts on the cancellation of “The Recruit” with The Hollywood Reporter. He’s taking the news in stride, saying “it is what it is” and “onto the next, I guess.” He acknowledged that there are many factors that went into the streamer’s decision to end the series, all of which were outside of his control. “Netflix, they have a certain mandate that they need to fill, and I’m very proud of the show, very grateful to our audience,” Centineo said. “We have a pretty strong cult following. And with Netflix, it just didn’t really fit what it was that they needed, I suppose.”

Centineo went on to reveal that being on the set of “The Recruit” was a real learning experience for him. “I really got to see behind the curtain of how a show gets made, and that to me was probably the most educational part of it, without a doubt,” he said. Does this mean he’s targeting a move behind the camera in the future? He already made his directorial debut helming the music video for ARTY’s “Save Me Tonight,” and working on “The Recruit” appears to have sparked an interest in the technical side of Hollywood productions. Either way, the future is bright for Centineo — he has several projects in the pipeline, including the upcoming 2025 film “Our Hero, Balthazar.”