Israeli spy thriller “Tehran” has been wowing audiences since the first season was released to widespread acclaim in June 2020.
The international Emmy award-winning TV series was created by Moshe Zonder, Dana Eden and Maor Cohen and follows the fortunes of Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan, played by Niv Sultan, as she works deep inside Iran on dangerous secret missions for Israel.
Like “Fauda” before it, the show has attracted not only Israeli audiences, but also has wide global appeal.
The first season was such a success, in fact, that it secured a deal with Apple TV+, becoming the first non-English language series to be released on the company’s streaming service.
In Season 2, Hollywood legend Glenn Close joined the cast, adding star power as the manipulative Marjan Montazeri, a British woman who serves as Rabinyan’s mentor. She even learned Farsi for the role.
In what possibly constituted one of the weirdest nights in the country’s history, Israel faced a massive UAV and missile attack launched by Iran on the night of April 13.
With millions of people awake in the middle of the night, watching the skies or their TVs, it was a historic event that was thankfully thwarted in a most magnificent manner.
This season kicks off at a time when the Israel-Iranian conflict has finally come out into the open. Earlier in the year, Iran launched two of the largest ballistic missile attacks in history against Israel. And Israel in turn assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah in Tehran while he attended a memorial for the Iranian president, who died in a helicopter crash; and launched devastating attacks on Iranian proxy, Hezbollah.
So what can we expect for Tehran Season 3?
- Filming for the third season of “Tehran” wrapped up in Greece in the summer of 2023, despite a short delay because of the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strike. The delay was only a week, because the show was classified as “an international production not bound by American union agreements.”
- The third season of this award-winning series was originally due to be released in April 2024, but was delayed when war broke out with Hamas last October and amid heightened tensions (and missile strikes) between Iran and Israel.
- It is now set to be released on December 9, to Israel’s Kan public broadcasting channel, but, unfortunately, for international audiences, no date has yet been set for streaming platform Apple TV+.
- British actor and comedian Hugh Laurie, who rose to fame alongside Rowan Atkinson in the UK comedy, “Blackadder,” and followed it with a brilliant turn as the grouchy doctor in “House,” joins the third season of “Tehran.” The Golden-Globe-winning actor plays Eric Peterson, a nuclear supervisor from South Africa. According to show creator Eden, Laurie “really loved the series. It wasn’t hard to recruit him.”
- Another actor joining the third season cast is Iraqi-born Israeli actor Sasson Gabbai, a veteran performer who played a leading role in “Shtisel,” a role he is reprising in a new “Shtisel” spinoff called “Kugel.” In “Tehran,” Gabbai will play Nissan, a veteran Israeli agent working for the Mossad.
- Also new to the series is Phoenix Raei, an Australian actor of Iranian descent, who plays businessman Ramin Gamsy.
- Eden told Kan that the third season of “Tehran” will be a “more suspenseful season, a bigger season, with new stars, new intrigues.” We’ll just have to wait and see if this is the case. Everyone is likely to have their own opinion.
- The third season picks up exactly where the second season left off, so it might be a good idea to refresh your memory on the twists and turns of the second series. A brief rundown goes like this: Tamar defies her Mossad handler and assassinates an Iranian general at his son’s funeral. The car that was supposed to take her to safety, blows up. She’s on her own now.
- In Season 2, fiction mirrored real life when the fictional General Qasem Mohammadi, commander of the Revolutionary Guard, was killed by a phone detonated by the Mossad, an attack that closely resembles the massive pager attack on Hezbollah operatives in September. Fans will no doubt be looking for clues to future world events in Season 3.
- Let’s hope, then, that Iran isn’t watching. The show’s creators say that Season 3’s focus will continue to be the conflict between Israel and Iran, and particularly the Iranian nuclear program. It will also focus heavily on the plight of women in Iran.
- As far as Season 4 goes, the delayed release has meant nothing is clear yet – mirroring yet again the real situation in the Middle East right now.
- And here’s the trailer:
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