Kit Harrington Joins HBO's 'Industry' for Its Third Season as Show Broadens Its Scope

HBO's "Industry" has been largely under the radar for its first two seasons, if only because it was overshadowed by the cable service's other show about high finance, the Emmy-winning "Succession." Hopefully the new season, which premieres on August 11, will get more viewers when it moves from its previous Monday night streaming time to Sunday – the preferred night for the network's prestige shows. And will likely get a boost with the addition of "Game of Throne's" hunk Kit Harrington, who will play a green entrepreneur with hopes of finding investors for his newest project.

The series, created by former bankers Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, is set at a fictional London investment bank, Pierpoint & Co., in which a group of interns compete for full-time jobs on the trading floor. Chief amongst them is Harper (Myha'la Herrold), an American with a shaky resume; Jasmin (Marisa Abela), a Middle-Eastern woman from a wealthy family; and Robert (Harry Lawtey), an ambitious working class lad with an insatiable appetite for sex (with most anyone) and drugs (specifically Ketamine). Their grueling process to get hired made up Season One; the second picked up after COVID as the traders face the prospect of Pierpont's London office being closed. But at the end of the season, Harper faces a more immediate crisis when it is learned she never graduated from college and is let go from Pierpont by her mentor Eric (Ken Leung), who knew of her past and protected her.

A press release about the new season, reported by Digital Spy, upcoming episodes will follow the company as it "looks to the future and takes a big bet on ethical investing... Yasmin (Marisa Abela), Robert (Harry Lawtey), and Eric (Ken Leung) find themselves front and centre in the splashy IPO of Lumi, a green tech energy company led by the British aristocrat Lord Henry Muck, the embodiment of 'old money' privilege," played by Harrington. According to Entertainment Weekly, he "will feature prominently in the story, which takes Industry all the way to the top of finance, media, and government."

Digital Spy adds that since "leaving Pierpoint, Harper (Myha'la) is eager to get back into the addictive thrill of finance and finds an unlikely partner in FutureDawn portfolio manager Petra Koenig (Sarah Goldberg, also new this season)."

Kay addressed the changing dynamic of the relationships with Entertainment Weekly, specifically between Yasmin and Eric, who have yet to work together. "The idea of Eric and Yasmin in scenes – they've never said a word to each other in the show," said co-creator Konrad Kay at the conclusion of season 2. "What does that relationship look like? Or Eric and Kenny? One thing we learned was narrowing the focus and pushing people together helps the show. If we get a season 3, we'll be able to tell stories that intersect far more and have the characters in a tighter network."

In an interview last year with Digital Spy, writer and consulting producer on season 3 Joseph Charlton discussed the new season. ""The world is bigger in a way that I think... audiences will find surprising. The show isn't just repeating itself. It's going into new places, and I think it's seeing the entanglement of finance and sectors in other parts of the world and politics in a way that I think is really novel and interesting."

He added to expect the show to move out the chaotic Pierpont trading floor, where a good deal of the first two seasons took place. "We're kind of expanding out, and the frame's getting wider, and you're starting to see, the bosses above those people, and then those bosses' bosses, and then how a big investment bank fits into the hierarchy of society more broadly than that."

He adds to expect "Industry" not to shy away from contemporary memes. "I think it's fair to say the series won't shy away from acknowledging the real world, and things that are present in the news. I think what's unique and good about the show... in the first series, there are references to Brexit. In the second series, there's COVID. In the third series, there'll be contemporary issues, too."

As for the show's accuracy, Charlton says: "We've got really good, anonymous advisors on the show who have worked in finance, whose identities are protected. It just means that we can get really realistic details into the show that informs the storylines in a way that I think is hopefully interesting to audiences, and just about accessible, to really understand what's going on."

One of the chief criticisms of "Industry" is that its characters aren't likable, which Charlton acknowledges, adding they reflect the times we live in. "We are kind of in a moment of television at the moment where we are very compelled by seeing characters that, you know, quite boldly say terrible things, and act reprehensively, be it in 'Succession' or 'Industry,' and I suppose that kind of matches some of the characters you see in real life. Obviously, Trump's a big example.

"But I think drama calls for big characters that match their narcissistic egos on the actual world stage. I think probably the third series will go even further in that direction of inviting empathy in difficult places."

Along with Harington and Goldberg, season 3 will also feature a host of new faces, including Miriam Petche as Sweetpea Golightly, Andrew Cavill as Lord Norton, Roger Barclay as Otto Mostyn, Fady Elsayed as Ali El Mansour, and Fiona Button as Denise Oldroyd.

Lawtey's outrageous antics in Season One made him the show's break-out star. Amongst them was his attempt at cheering up his roommate by offering him a blow job; in another he has fast sex with a visiting student in his office's men's room; and his drug use leads him to get a nose bleed during a crucial employment review. His most memorable moment, though, came when me met up with Jasmine in a public rest room during a holiday party and she jerks him off. When he shoots, she instructs him to lick his semen off the mirror. You will have to watch the show to see if he does.

You can catch clips of Lawton's more outrageous behavior on Mr. Man.