The Day of the Jackal is gearing up for season 2 with fresh faces joining the fold. Led once again by Eddie Redmayne, the series is entering its next chapter amid a notable behind-the-scenes shift.
New faces join Eddie Redmayne’s returning assassin
As first reported by Deadline, Weruche Opia and Pablo Schreiber have joined the cast as series regulars. Apart from Redmayne’s return as internationally renowned assassin Alexander Duggan, known as “The Jackal”, character details and an official season 2 logline are being kept firmly under wraps.
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Opia is best known for her acclaimed role as Terry in HBO’s I May Destroy You, which earned her a BAFTA TV nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She recently portrayed Coretta Scott King in Genius: MLK/X, has wrapped Netflix’s Ladies First, and will next be seen in the Amazon limited series Bait, starring Riz Ahmed.
Schreiber’s best-known TV roles include George “Pornstache” Mendez in Orange Is the New Black — which earned him an Emmy nomination — and Master Chief in Paramount+’s Halo. His credits also include The Wire, Weeds, and American Gods, while his film work spans Den of Thieves, The Manchurian Candidate, First Man, and Skyscraper. He will next appear in Apple TV’s upcoming series The Savant, opposite Jessica Chastain.
Season 2 also brings a creative reset
Alongside the casting additions, season 2 is moving ahead with a shift in creative leadership. Series creator Ronan Bennett has stepped back from his writing duties due to other commitments, though he remains attached as an executive producer.
David Harrower has taken over as lead writer and showrunner. Harrower previously created Carnival Films’ Lockerbie: A Search for the Truth, which also aired on both Sky and Peacock.
Speaking to Variety in December, Carnival Films CEO Gareth Neame acknowledged that season 1 took a largely original approach, but retained what he described as “the same dynamic between the hunter and the hunted” found in Frederick Forsyth’s novel and the 1973 film adaptation. Looking ahead, Neame noted that there were still “lots of elements from [Forsyth’s] novel that we didn’t utilize in season one” that would come into play as the series moves forward.
Neame also framed the upcoming run as an escalation rather than a reinvention, describing season 2 as “another very lavish, slickly directed, well acted, high-octane twist and turn thriller” as production prepares to get underway.
A hit first season sets the bar high
Based on Frederick Forsyth’s novel and its 1973 film adaptation, The Day of the Jackal follows a highly elusive assassin who makes his living carrying out hits for the highest fee. The modern reimagining landed strongly with audiences, becoming the biggest new series to ever launch on Sky in the UK.
In the U.S., the series ranked in Nielsen’s Top 10 streaming original dramas during its debut week (November 14, 2024) and again during the week of its finale (December 12, 2024), underscoring just how quickly it found an audience stateside.
The series also received positive reviews (85% on Rotten Tomatoes) and was handed two Golden Globe Award nominations, Best Television Series – Drama and Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama for Redmayne.
For now, the specifics of season 2’s story remain tightly guarded, but the pieces are coming together. Stay tuned.
