+34
The crime drama Kin is slated to return next year with Season 3, confronting internal betrayals as the Kinsella family power struggles. After Bron Studios declared bankruptcy in 2023, the series faced uncertainty, but the return was confirmed at the IFTAs. Stars like Clare Dunne and crew recount filming challenges, including a dramatic pilot climax set for a train‑shot scene.
The plot synopsis for the new batch of episodes reads:"As the Kin sellas consolidate power, buried betrayals and festering rivalries turn inward, and the greatest threat to the family empire becomes the family itself".
Kin S3 will air in 2027. Ciaran Donnelly and Peter McKenna co-created the series, with McKenna serving as showrunner. Bron Studios, the production company behind Kin, declared bankruptcy in 2023. This put the show's future in major doubt for years.
When quizzed about reports of the crime drama's return at the IFTAs this year, the series's star Clare Dunne told: “So delighted to have it come back. I was on the phone to Charlie the other day in America, and he’s thrilled.
" “I think he always loves bringing his kids over to Ireland, actually, for the summer holidays," she said, laughing, before adding:"Yeah, just really looking forward to being with all the crew again as well. The crew are amazing. ” Dunne also revealed that Cox had been texting her over the past few years, telling her: “I really miss Kin.
"He shared great stories about making the crime drama. One in particular involved filming the climax of the pilot episode. This is when Jamie , the son of lead characters Amanda and Jimmy , is accidentally shot and killed in a drive-by shooting. Goggins explains:"It's funny.
I had a huge plan to shoot the end of the episode. It's the pilot episode. You've got to send the audience out with a bang.
"The boy gets shot underneath a train track bridge in town. I wanted the train lights to flash by as the shooting was going on. So, you'd have the sound of the train, the lights flashing by.
"When you get down there, obviously, you realise when the DART goes past, it's actually not that fast, and it doesn't create that. "So, I was like, we're going to have to recreate this. So, we brought in this huge lighting rig that had this strobe lighting, and I wanted to do it in one shot.
"A car had to come in, spin around. We tracked down, tracked in, tracked out, and basically all of that happened in one shot. It was all masterful.
"We had four hours to shoot it in. We get there and, and Cian, who plays the boy, lets us know at that point that he actually can't drive.
"'Give it a try. ' Obviously we try the first one, and he cuts out halfway down.
Second one, a bit of kangaroo petrol . It's like: 'This isn't really how I envisioned it.
' "So, we had to push him in. The beauty of that scene is, watch it again, there's men behind that car pushing him down the hill, and they have to let go at the last moment of the car just to get around and stop.
"So, watch it again... because you'll notice it now because you'll go: 'Oh my God, the car is going really slow. '"According to the director, the"career-defining moment" was"never supposed" to be his. "Here's the mad thing. We shot Kin during Covid.
At the time, I was attached to do a different show, which was going to shoot in Belgium, but had the same writer," he told JOE.
"Peter McKenna is the writer of Kin. He is also the writer of this other show, which at that time wasn't called Hidden Assets, but became Hidden Assets.
"Because of Covid, that show got because no one could travel out of the country. We were all in lockdown.
"Lockdown happened and, basically, Kin had no director attached. When Hidden Assets went kind of by the by, Peter asked me if I would pitch for this show he had called Kin.
"He was under the understanding that because it was a big American show, there was big American finances behind it, it was a bigger cast, that with my experience at that time, I probably wouldn't have got the lead block director. "So, I read the scripts, sat down, and I did a visual mood board.
I did kind of a mood reel, which is I get a load of films, a piece of music, cut it together into a two-minute sizzle reel.
""One of the things for Kin that was really pertinent and really kind of clear to me from the outset was I wanted the characters to break the fourth wall. I wanted the characters to look straight down the lens for specific moments," the director told JOE.
"One of the things that the director has power over is obviously the camera, and one of the main things that I say that can connect an audience is what we call eyeline, which is the connection between the audience and the eyeline... It's very engaging.
"There is a film by Paul Thomas Anderson called The Master that has really specific examples of that. "He has really gorgeous shots where the actors look straight down the lens. So, the opening and closing shot of the mood reel were two shots from The Master of someone breaking the fourth wall.
"Goggins sent this reel to McKenna and his team, who loved it, feeling like it matched the show's tone and mood. "They said: 'Would you come and do a meeting,' and I was like: 'Yeah, of course,' the director recounts. "Friday morning I wake up, my wife was pregnant, and she went into labour. We rushed into a hospital to get my wife in.
It's Covid. I'm not allowed to go in the doors, so she's rushed up.
"I'm thinking: 'My wife's going to have a baby. Am I going to see the baby? Is she going to give birth and I'm just going to be a dad?
' "All these things go to my head... So, I have to text Peter and say: 'Listen, I wonder, could we push it?
' "He's like, 'We can push it, but it has to be Sunday. ' Because they were under pressure to get it done. "They pushed it, but in that moment, I sat down on the wall outside Holles Street Hospital. I was a very emotional person, and I wrote a director's treatment.
"I wrote something that I felt connected me to the story. Kin is a crime drama. It's a gang drama, but at the heart of it, it's a family drama, and what I wrote was a very emotional piece about becoming a father.
"And the power and the hurt and the pain and the fear you have of being a father, and how, to imagine losing a child, what impact that would have on my life. "So... I sat on a wall in Holles Street and literally cried while I wrote this thing. I'd say people were walking past going: 'Who is your man or what's going on?
' "I submitted it, and they loved that as well. So, I went into this meeting on Sunday, having had a new baby boy, and spent about two hours on a call with Peter and all the American execs that were involved.
"I pitched the show off, and at the end of the call, they offered me the job. So, it was kind of the job that wasn't supposed to be mine.
" We noted to Goggins that Kin is one of JOE fans' most popular shows, based on the comment section of our socials. The director expressed his delight at this, but also said:"When we made it, it didn't feel like it was ever going to be the best show in the world.
"I had this vision for it, which is I wanted it to be very glossy and high-end and lots of clean lines and big windows and a very different side of Dublin that I'd ever seen on TV before. "We made it, and then it launched on RTÉ. I remember the night. Twitter was big... the first 10 minutes I went on, I clicked on Twitter, and it was slated.
"People were like, 'Who the hell names a gangster Caolan? There's no way there's a gangster called Caolan. What gangsters dress like this?
'"Then slowly, I think by the end of that and then the end of part two and part three, the audience started to turn a little bit. By the end of the season, it became, I think, very successful. When JOE mention that our fans often propose a Kin and Love/Hate crossover, Goggins responds: "Wouldn't it be good?
" Continuing, he said:" literally got slated, and then it did well. It did really well, obviously on RTÉ.
"But the door for me creatively in terms of my career, it blew off when the BBC broadcast it, and Netflix bought the show. "It was a game-changer for me. The meetings that I got in the UK off the back of Kin being launched on the BBC were incredible.
"You look back at those moments where you thought: 'We've made an absolute stinker' to like: 'Yes, we knew it . ' "So, it was a slow-burn win, and so when you hear that the JOE fans love it, I love the JOE fans even more. "It means so much when people say to you, I love that show. Because don't get me wrong, people still come to me and say, I never liked that show.
"The hometown fans are probably always a bit more critical of the hometown stuff. I think that's probably the nature of what it is.
"I think there's a bit of small-towniness where we're like: 'Well, it's not that good'. But when it lands internationally, people then realise: 'Well, maybe it is that good.
' "We're just good at putting people down in Ireland. I think we love that. We're good at, if someone gets up too high, we just put them straight back down again.
"In a way I kind of love that. But it's hard when you've made a show that's someone slating, but at the same time, there is something nice and very grounding about it. While Goggins isn't working on Kin season three, he is delighted for McKenna and the cast that it is coming back.
"Peter... always said he wanted three seasons to kind of wrap it all up. I think he might have a 4th in there. I don't know," the director told JOE. Kin season three will air on RTÉ sometime in 2027.
The first two seasons of Kin are streaming on the RTÉ Player now. Evanna Lynch marries partner Denis Skinner in London ceremonyEvanna Lynch marries partner Denis Skinner in London ceremony Harry Potter actress marries in London Co Louth actress Evanna Lynch, best known as Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter films, has married her partner Denis Skinner in London.
The 35-year-old wed her partner of almost five years in an intimate ceremony at Islington Town Hall on Friday, 21 August, she told British Vogue. The Sacha Baron Cohen’s new secret Ali G movie reveals first look Coming to cinemas very soon, the film will see Sacha Baron Cohen make his directorial debut. The first trailer has hit the web for Sacha Baron Cohen’s new, “shot-in-secret” Ali G movie. Titled Ali G: Who Iz I?
, the mockumentary film will see Oscar-nominee Baron Cohen reprise the role that launched A gratitude journal changed that The 46-year-old British actor and comedian, speaking to Men’s Health UK, has just reprised his role as Roy Kent for a fourth series of the Apple TV comedy, RTÉ Entertainment reports. Brett Goldstein said: “I was depressed” in the years before Ted Lasso made him a household name, and that
Kin Season 3 Bron Studios Bankruptcy TV Drama Return Production Challenges
Ireland Latest News, Ireland Headlines
Similar News: You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
The Witcher Season 4 Audience Score Collapses To 20%The Witcher season 4 has crashed to a 20% Rotten Tomatoes audience score, and the final season looks set to double down. Streaming on Netflix Ireland.
Read more »
Troy Parrott Set to Make La Liga Debut for Real BetisReal Betis manager Manuel Pellegrini has declared Troy Parrott ready to make his La Liga debut for the club. The 37-cap Ireland international joined from AZ Alkmaar last Thursday for a fee believed to be in the region of €20 million. Parrott will be the 11th Irish player to feature in La Liga, following in the footsteps of Matt Doherty who became the 10th when loaned to Atletico Madrid in 2023.
Read more »
Nicola Coughlan to Have Reduced Role in Bridgerton Season 5Nicola Coughlan has confirmed that she will have a reduced role in the upcoming fifth season of the Netflix period drama Bridgerton. The actress will still be involved in the show, but will no longer be at the centre of the story.
Read more »
Ireland Provinces in France for Pre-Season TrainingThree Irish provinces are in France this weekend, preparing for the new season by training in a match environment. The provinces will face familiar faces in the La Rochelle coaching cadre and will also be facing new players and coaches.
Read more »