The third season of “Tehran” was supposed to be a triumph. After winning an international Emmy award for its first season, and Glenn Close starring in season two, the Israeli spy thriller had snagged another big international star for its next season, this one iconic for any lover of British comedy and 2000s TV: Hugh Laurie, who an entire generation knows as the kvetchy and brilliant Dr. House. The new season, produced by both Apple TV+ and Israel’s national broadcast channel KAN11, wrapped shooting in Greece in the summer of 2023 and was supposed to premiere around April of 2024.
Then came October 7 and the Israel-Hamas war, and airing a show about the conflict between Israel and Iran became complicated, even more now with the exchanges of missile fire.
“We are currently considering creative changes for season 4 and therefore are not meeting the production schedules as planned,” the production company shared with Ynet in November of last year. A May statement from KAN stated that they were in touch with representatives from Apple TV+ to schedule a new premiere date for the season, and that the postponement was agreed upon by both parties.
Now, it seems they have reached some sort of agreement, or at least one that allows for the season to premiere on KAN. The network recently shared that the season would start airing December 9, and Israelis in the comments section, who may have previously missed the news about Hugh Laurie joining the cast, are going wild.
The show’s hypnotic Niv Sultan plays Persian-Israeli intelligence maven Tamar Rabinyan, who works for the Mossad on covert operations in Iran. In season three, she will try to win back their trust after going rogue during season two.
“This season is going to be a more suspenseful season, a bigger season, with new stars, new intrigues,” Dana Eden shared with KAN this week. “We have Sasson Gabbai, who I think you will see him in a different way than we’ve seen until today, he’s actually an action star, a Mossad agent.” Gabbai is the star of another big-ticket show premiering in December, the “Shtisel” prequel “Kugel,” in which he reprises his role as the enterprising and confrontational Nuchem Shtisel.
Hugh Laurie will play a South African nuclear inspector. Eden shared that the actor “really loved the series. It wasn’t hard to recruit him.”
Many have pointed out that plot points from the show’s first two seasons have come to fruition in real life over the last year of heated conflict with Iran and its proxies. For example, at the end of season two, the head of the IRGC was killed by a phone that was detonated by the Mossad, which mirrors Israel’s recent targeting of Hezbollah militants through their beepers.
“Let’s hope that what happens in this season will also happen [in real life],” Eden shared. Season three, she says, is all about the Iranian nuclear program, and it will follow Rabinyan as she finds herself “alone in Tehran, being chased both by the Mossad and the Iranian security forces.” It’s “a crazy rollercoaster,” she added.
Along with Sultan, Gabbai and Laurie, Shaun Toub, Shila Ommi, Iranian-Swedish actress Bahar Pars and Iranian-Australian “Clickbait” star Phoenix Raei will also be a part of season three. In a sassy move, the network also released a tiny teaser of the new season using a viral “The Kardashians” sound of Kim K saying, “OK guys, we’re back, did you miss us, because we missed you!”
Unfortunately, international viewers might have to miss it a bit longer. So far, there is no news about when, or if, the show will be premiering on Apple TV+.
@kan_il
