David Mitchell Gives Exciting Filming Update (Exclusive)

Ludwig fans will be delighted to know that the BBC series, which comes out on BritBox in the United States, has already been renewed for Season 3. Ludwig Season 2 premieres later this year. Ahead of the new season, TV Insider got a Season 3 update from Ludwig star David Mitchell.

“We start shooting at the beginning of next month [September 2026],” Mitchell tells TV Insider about Ludwig Season 3.

Season 2 of Ludwig comes out in the United Kingdom on August 20 on BBC One, with all six episodes streaming on BBC iPlayer on the same day. The BritBox Season 2 premiere date will be announced at a later time, but it’s set to come out in 2026. BBC renewed Ludwig for Season 3 on July 8.

In Ludwig, puzzle setter John “Ludwig” Taylor’s (Mitchell) identical twin, DCI James Taylor, disappears. John assumes his identity in order to track him down. Ludwig sheds his brotherly secret identity in Season 2, but a new secret has taken its place. To cover up his crimes of impersonation from Season 1, the Cambridge police made it seem like John had been solving James’ work mysteries all along. Very few people at work know that, so John now has to keep that under wraps in Season 2 despite being able to be his real self on the job.

The cast of Ludwig Season 2 (BBC / Big Talk Studios / Olly Courtney)

In Ludwig Season 2, picking up from the end of Season 1, master puzzle-setter John is now a Crime Scene Consultant, working alongside DCI Russell Carter (Dipo Ola), on “impossible” crimes for the Cambridge Police Authority. No longer having to masquerade as his brother, he’s openly more “Ludwig” than ever – brilliant at solving puzzles but hopeless at everything else. But John’s identical twin brother, James, is still missing, and now that he’s an official employee of the station, John is forbidden from using any police resources to look for his brother or uncover exactly what he was investigating.

Of course, John won’t stop and neither will Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin), John’s sister-in-law and wife of his missing brother James. A puzzle needs solving and a husband and father needs bringing home. One masquerade may have ended, but a new one has just begun.

Also returning for Season 2 are Dipo Ola as DCI Russell Carter, Dylan Hughes as Henry Betts-Taylor, Dorothy Atkinson as DCS Carol Shaw, Ralph Ineson as Chief Constable Ziegler, and Karl Pilkington as DI Matt Neville.

Joining the cast as series regulars are Mark Bonnar as newspaper editor Gareth Fisher, Sian Clifford as local MP Joanne Kemper, Ben Ashenden as DC Ethan Cole, and Rumi Sutton as DC Caitlin Sullivan. As announced on August 6, Stephen Merchant is a guest star in Season 2 Episode 4. He plays Danny Sloane, a cocky snooker champion who is at odds with John. Snooker is popular game in the U.K. that’s similar to pool and billiards.

Ludwig‘s first season comprises of six installments, which became available to audiences stateside on BritBox in March of 2025, roughly six months after its September 2024 debut in the U.K. on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. After raking in 9.5 million viewers across 28 days, it became BBC’s biggest new scripted series since 2022.