‘Around The World In 80 Days’: David Tennant, Ibrahim Koma & Leonie Benesch Series Renewed For Season 2
David Tennant, Ibrahim Koma & Leonie Benesch are already planning their next global trip, as producers of the upcoming tv adaptation of ‘Around The World In 80 Days‘ confirm the drama will return for a 2nd Season before the first has even aired.
Season 1 of the series, which is due to air in January 2022 on BBC One in the UK and PBS Masterpiece in the USA, Phileas Fogg (Tennant) and his valet, Passepartout (Koma), who make an outrageous bet to take on the legendary journey of circumnavigating the globe in just 80 days. They are swiftly joined by aspiring journalist Abigail Fix (Benesch), who seizes the chance to report on this extraordinary story.
Tennant takes the lead as Phileas Fogg, with rising French star, Ibrahim Koma (‘Je Suis Daddy’, ‘Mother is Wrong’), taking on the role of the mercurial Passepartout; an irrepressible chancer who falls into the role of Fogg’s ‘valet’, little knowing it will change his life forever; and Leonie Benesch (‘The Crown’, ‘White Ribbon’) playing Abigail Fix, the young journalist determined to make her mark in a man’s world and emerge from the long shadow of her British establishment father.
The series is written by Ashley Pharoah (‘Life on Mars’, ‘Ashes to Ashes’, ‘The Living and the Dead’) and Caleb Ranson (‘Child of Mine’, ‘Heartless’). Film, television and music video director Steve Barron (‘The Durrells’, ‘Treasure Island’, ‘Dreamkeeper’) is lead director with Charles Beeson (‘The Mentalist’, ‘Supernatural’) also directing a number of episodes. Executive producers are Simon Crawford Collins for Slim Film + Television and Lionel Uzan and Pascal Breton for Federation.
Not a lot is known about the second season at the moment, but it will see Phileas Fogg and his team take another perilous challenge to traverse the globe. Deals are still in the works, but all three of the leads are expected to return.
Around the World in Eighty Days’ is a Slim Film + Television and Federation Entertainment co-production with additional co-production partners, Palladium Pictures in South Africa, and Daro Film, associate producer. The series will be broadcast on France Télévisions, Germany’s ZDF and Italy’s RAI, with Seven West Media broadcasting the drama in Australia, PBS Masterpiece in the USA, and the BBC in the UK.
Slim Film + Television and Federation Entertainment also confirmed they are tackling another Jules Verne’s classic, as they announce work has begun on a tv adaptation of the novel ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ alongside the second season of ‘Around The World In 80 Days’. That story follows Professor Lidenbrock, an adventurous geology professor who chances upon a manuscript in which a 16th-century explorer claims to have found a route to the earth’s core. The Professor leads a life-threatening expedition that will unearth secrets about the origins of humanity and its future.
‘Around The World In 80 Days‘ Season 1 is due to premiere Sunday, 26th December 2021 at 5:50pm on BBC One in the UK, and Sunday, January 02, 2022, at 8:00 pm on PBS Masterpiece in the USA.
