The Peacock and Sky dramatic series “The Day of the Jackal” was renewed for a second season, the streamer and broadcaster announced Thursday.
The show’s success was “unusually strong” Carnival Films CEO Gareth Neame told TheWrap this month. The series is part of Neame’s strategic plan that includes launching series that are “expressly British but will have global appeal.” The formula worked when he sold “Downton Abbey” to NBCUniversal in 2008, though he admitted he “could not have anticipated” how successful that series would ultimately become.
Sky and Peacock announced the series was in production in 2023. Eddie Redmayne produced and starred in the first season. The show is based on the Frederick Forsyth thriller and subsequent award-winning 1973 film adaptation of the same name.
“While staying true to the DNA of the original story, this contemporary drama will delve deeper into the chameleon like ‘anti-hero’ at the heart of the story in a high octane, cinematic, globetrotting ‘cat and mouse’ thriller, set amidst the turbulent geo-political landscape of our time,” the companies said at the time.
Redmayne stars as a hired assassin and Lashana Lynch as the British intelligence officer who is intent on catching him. The series also stars Úrsula Corberó, Charles Dance, Richard Dormer, Chukwudi Iwuji, Lia Williams, Khalid Abdalla, Eleanor Matsuura, Jonjo O’Neill, Nick Blood, Sule Rimi and Florisa Kamara.
In addition to Redmayne, Lynch, writer Ronan Bennett, director Brian Kirk, Sue Nagle, Carnival Films’ Gareth Neame and Nigel Marchant and Sky Studios’ Sam Hoyle all serve as executive producers. Carnival Films and Chris Hall serve as producers, while Forsyth serves as consulting producer, with NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution as distributor.
