HBO’s finance drama Industry is set to launch its third season Sunday, taking over the network’s coveted weekend primetime spot for the first time.
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It’s a marquee placement previously held by some of HBO’s biggest shows including Euphoria , Succession , Game of Thrones and its prequel series House of the Dragon . Those are quite big shoes to fill for the modest series that producer Jane Tranter calls “The Little Engine That Could.”
Tranter, through her production banner Bad Wolf, has been at the helm of Industry since its humble beginnings, working with showrunners Mickey Down and Konrad Kay on this niche, ruthless drama series about a group of new finance grads thrown into the world of investment banking. The series has never been afraid to take big swings or, as Tranter says, “tell the truth, even if that truth is sometimes unpalatable.”
That honesty, Tranter argues, is what has attracted the show’s cult following thus far. The hope is that putting it on a bigger stage (aka Sunday nights) will expand the audience, but even with the potential for more eyeballs on the series, there are no intentions to tone things down now.
In fact, Tranter assures that Season 3 will continue that same honest and often brutal approach as the storylines open up beyond the world of Pierpoint & Co. What started as a story about new grads navigating a savage work environment has “developed into something more, because it’s earned the right to do that,” Tranter adds.
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Tranter spoke with Deadline about nurturing the series over the first two seasons and also broke down her expectations for the upcoming third season. As co-founder of Bad Wolf, which also produces Doctor Who for BBC and Disney+, the former BBC executive herself also detailed more about her production company’s philosophy for making TV.
DEADLINE: Industry is taking over the Sunday night HBO slot, which is a big vote of confidence from the network. What do you think it’ll do for the series to move from Mondays into that marquee spot?
JANE TRANTER: I think that’s huge. I think it makes a huge difference. I don’t think that the Monday slot has been bad for the show at all, though. I think that it’s enabled the show to grow and to grow quite quietly in a protected environment, where it’s been beloved by the fans who are watching it. It’s always had really good reviews. People who’ve seen it have have praised it. But, we’ve been able to grow the muscles of the show. Some shows can just come straight out the gate, but Mickey and Konrad had never written anything for television. They never had anything made before this show. It was in the early days of Bad Wolf making it, and it just gave us the chance to be able to find our feet. Now, I think with this season, we’ve really found our feet…I love the fact that it’s following on from House of the Dragon . That is such a mighty, mighty show, and for us to be chugging on behind it like The Little Engine That Could is really exhilarating.
DEADLINE: As you mentioned, Mickey and Konrad were new to TV when they started making Industry. What made it important for you to keep them on as the showrunners despite that lack of experience, and how has it shaped the series?
TRANTER: I never really thought otherwise about it for two reasons. One is we don’t have the same showrunner system in the UK as you do in the U.S. You basically have a triumvirate of writer, director and producer — and producers produce in a slightly different way in the UK than they do in the U.S. to complete that triumvirate…but I had spent over eight years living and working in the U.S and had really learned to enjoy that showrunner way of working. I’ve always wanted to put the writer at the heart of everything, and so when we approach Mickey and Konrad for this, I thought two things. One, I said to HBO, ‘Okay, they’ve never done it before, but…give me three years, and I’ll make sure they’re some of the best show runners that you have.’ Actually, it’s been a lot more than three years. It’s been six years, because it’s a slower show. I mean, we’ve been working on it for eight years. It took us a couple of years to get it into green light, and then each season has taken a couple of years to do. But they are outstanding. Look at them now. They are the co-creators, the writers, the executive producers, and now they direct as well. They do all of that because they have the talent and the drive to do all of that.
So, one, I wanted to do it because I think it’s right to put the writer at the heart of everything. But secondly, because they’re the guys who used to work in finance. We came along and said, ‘Okay, let’s do something set in this world.’ But we didn’t have a clue, really had no clue whatsoever what we were doing. They knew. So that authentic voice, that hot breath of experience that is on the shoulder of every line that they write had to be right at the center of everything. So they have to be right at the center of everything. They’ve just grown and grown and grown brilliantly.
DEADLINE: What excites you most about Season 3?
TRANTER: I think what I’m really looking forward to is the audience having stories that always have their roots in the finance world, because that’s the signature of the show, but where the stories are more developed personally than they have been before. We’ve all been on a journey with those characters. So you can do that now. It started off as an experience about, okay, who do you sit next to at work? How do you get your boss to like you? It’s now developed into something more, because it’s earned the right to do that. So I’m really looking forward to the audience getting to see storylines that are opening up more.
Kit Harington as Henry Muck is a really good new note to add to the series. He’s utterly brilliant. He’s very funny, and at the same time, he’s devastatingly sharp. Henry Muck is a really interesting character. He’s quintessentially British as a character, but I think will speak very well to the whole world. I’m really looking forward to the audience seeing locations which, as I will call them, are part of the upstairs-downstairs of our British world here. So we go and see some really beautiful, high-end, ‘I’ve got loads of money,’ aristocratic, Henry Muck locations, and I think that really opens out the vision of the show. I’m excited to unleash all of that on the audience.
DEADLINE: Speaking of Kit Harington, he’s a big addition to the season. Last season Jay Duplass was a guest star. How do you decide who to explore for these roles? Does their star power, particularly in the U.S., ever play a factor?
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TRANTER: I think with Jay, he just felt right for the role, and the fact that he had some pre-recognition was really good for us. It’s a show that set out to, in the main cast, be populated by artists who were just coming out of drama school and were therefore, obviously going to be unknown to an audience. They’re now well known to an audience, doing different things. They’ve all shot off and are having amazing careers, but Jay was a step towards that.
And Kit, when Mickey and Konrad were talking about the part, and I said, ‘Look, this really is an opportunity for us to cast someone who is a little better known.’ I mean, obviously, cast someone who’s completely right. But let’s keep an open mind to to that. As a character began to form on the pages, we heard that Kit was available and was a fan of the show, and I was like, ‘Literally, go meet him now. Go meet him now. Go take him for lunch. Go meet him now.’ It was sort of love at first lunch.
DEADLINE: Since it began, Industry has drawn comparisons to Succession . As a producer on both, did you ever draw those comparisons?
TRANTER: As the mother of twins, I know comparisons are a really, really bad idea and make me very nervous. I think those two shows are really very different in all sorts of ways, and I think they are both brilliant in their different ways. I think that perhaps people put the two shows together because in both shows, you are drawn and compelled to watch characters who are completely outside of most of our realm of understanding, either because they’re super rich or because they work in this niche world of finance. You are drawn to characters who often are doing really fairly despicable things, and yet you enjoy watching them. Also, both with Mickey and Konrad and with Jesse [Armstrong] and his team, they show you the humanity even in the darkness. Other than that, I think they are really very, very different. I mean, one is tiny show made in the UK, and the other is an enormous show made in the U.S. with a massive cast. I celebrate them for their differences and love them both.
DEADLINE: Do you think Succession being off the air now may open the door for a larger audience to flock to Industry , particularly because of those similarities in tone?
TRANTER: I think the door that’s been opened to for Industry to make a wider noise on HBO is it going out on Sunday night. Succession was just one show. It didn’t stop many other shows happening. I think that Industry is a rare jewel that needs a bit of protection in that it is a show that was grown from new talent. Part of the reason Casey Bloys went on this journey — it was one of the first pieces that he commissioned when he took over as president of drama and moving from comedy into drama — and I think one of the reasons he went on the journey with it is because he encouraged, ‘Let’s hear some new voices. Let’s see what that authentic experience will feel and sound like.’ I think those shows need a bit of protection. They learn to make a louder noise. I don’t think it’s anything to do with Succession ‘s presence is what I’m saying. But I think that having shows like Succession and like Industry are really important in our television landscape.
DEADLINE: When taking on new projects at Bad Wolf, what are you looking for?
TRANTER: I think it’s gut instinct, really. Sometimes, in something like Industry , that was inspired by wanting to look in that world. It was inspired by a real story. In His Dark Materials , those were books that I wanted to make for ages. I Hate Suzie , we were just lucky enough to get the opportunity when Lucy [Prebble] and Billie [Piper] had a project to be there. I think really what we look for are good stories, well told, with something to say. We tend to really lean into strong female characters, and we look for something that has a moral center, even if sometimes that moral center looks like a cold, dark heart. It’s actually telling an audience, ‘Okay, this is wrong.’ You feel what’s right. Everyone at Bad Wolf, we’re all obsessed by television. We love the real estate of that size and scale of television, and we make things that we’d like to watch.
DEADLINE: Industry has been very bold in its storytelling from day one. It doesn’t shy away from stories about sexual assault, workplace harassment and more that may be hard to watch. Have you ever been worried about how any of them might play with audiences? Worried about whether the swing was too big?
TRANTER: I’ve never been worried about that. I think I’ve never been worried about that for two reasons. I think, one, Casey very firmly encouraged us to be bold right at the start. I mean, I’m not a great believer in asking for permission. I prefer to beg for forgiveness. But Casey was very much like, ‘You are permitted to just get out there and do it.’ I think the second thing is that none of those things are ever unjustified, and they were all part of the context of the world and the characters that Mickey and Konrad are drawing. So that is how it is. There are lots of things in life that happen that we need to address, and we shouldn’t shy away and just think, ‘Okay, well, that’s a bit tough’ or ‘That’s a bit that is very out there,’ but actually it’s all based on stuff that actually happens. They’re not sitting there making sh*t up. This stuff happens, and I feel that Industry , it’s got the right kind of warning signs around it. It’s an adult show, and it does take big swings, and I think that’s part of the reason an audience is drawn to it, because they know it’s going to tell the truth, even if that truth is sometimes unpalatable.
DEADLINE: What do you see in terms of the longevity of the show?
TRANTER: Mickey and Konrad have never made any secret the fact that they want a minimum five seasons to tell these stories. Every now and again, they’ll sometimes say maybe six, but we’ll see. I mean, I think we’ll know when it’s time to stop, or HBO will tell us it’s time to stop. But I’m certainly not ready to stop yet.
DEADLINE: Bad Wolf also produces Doctor Who for Disney+. How have you felt about the reception to the first new season on Disney+, and what do you think about its longevity?
TRANTER: We feel good about the first season. Just as Industry was a really small experiment at the start, I think this new building of the franchise between the BBC and Disney+ — it’s a whole new iteration, and us all coming back all these years later to do it. It was a whole new adventure. We’re really pleased with the show that we’ve made, and that there is a whole new audience being driven to the show who haven’t watched Doctor Who in the past, has been exactly what Russell [Davies] set out to do. So that’s really good. We announced last week that we’re doing The War Between The Land And The Sea , which is the first time there’s a mini series within the whole universe. So we’re thrilled that the BBC and Disney+ have awarded us that to do. We’re still in the edit, very early days of the edit for Season 2, which obviously won’t go out for another year or so. It’s very exciting. We’re right in the middle of the journey, and it’s very exhilarating.
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