Peacock and Sky confirmed ‘The Day of the Jackal’ for season two.
‘The Day of the Jackal’ had a strong start, with 3 million viewers in its first week on Sky Atlantic, the best debut there in two years. On Peacock, it was a top-five streaming series during its first weekend.
The series is based on a 1971 novel by Frederick Forsyth, which was made into a 1973 movie. It follows an assassin (Eddie Redmayne) and an MI6 agent (Lashana Lynch) trying to catch him.
It’s not confirmed if Lynch or Redmayne will return for season two. The 10-episode first season is still airing on Sky Atlantic in the U.K. (since November 7) and Peacock in the U.S. (since November 14).
The season one cast includes Úrsula Corberó, Charles Dance, Richard Dormer, Chukwudi Iwuji, Lia Williams, Khalid Abdalla, Eleanor Matsuura, Jonjo O’Neill, and Sule Rimi.
The series is made by Carnival Films. Ronan Bennett adapted the novel and is an executive producer along with Gareth Neame, Nigel Marchant, Sam Hoyle, Sue Naegle, Brian Kirk, and Eddie Redmayne. Lynch and Marianne Buckland are co-executive producers. Season one directors are Brian Kirk, Anthony Philipson, Paul Wilmshurst, and Anu Menon.
Carnival Films updated ‘The Day of the Jackal’ to the present day to make it more interesting. Neame and Marchant had considered remaking the 1971 novel for years but felt the 1973 movie version was already a classic.
“We revere the film enormously but kept talking about [a remake],” Neame recently told Deadline. “It was such an intriguing, interesting idea and we couldn’t quite let it go.”
He added, “That was the breakthrough for us. When we thought we could do it as a contemporary series we realized we could unlock something that was really quite different from the original. It made it worth doing.”
The two-part finale of ‘The Day of the Jackal’ is set to air on Sky on December 12.
