Sky and US streaming service Peacock has renewed the hit thriller series ‘The Day Of The Jackal‘ for a 2nd Season it has been announced.
The drama follows an unrivalled and highly elusive lone assassin, the Jackal, (Eddie Redmayne), who makes his living carrying out hits for the highest fee. But following his latest kill, he meets his match in a tenacious British intelligence officer (Lashana Lynch) who starts to track down the Jackal in a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase across Europe, leaving destruction in its wake.
The renewal is not exactly unexpected, given it has been a monster hit in the UK, USA, and around the world. In the UK, it has become the biggest Sky Original ever and the biggest launch on Sky in over two years, drawing a record audience of 3m in its first week. In the US it ranked #1 on Peacock’s Top 10 TV Shows on its platform and was a Top 5 streaming original in the US for its opening weekend (according to preliminary Nielsen data). In Sky Group markets Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ireland the series is the biggest-ever debut for a UK Sky Original, and in Australia, the series has become the highest-rated new series launch of this year for Fox Showcase.
In addition, the series has sold to almost 200 territories globally, including SkyShowtime across Europe; Disney+ in Latin America; Amazon Prime Video in France; Corus in Canada; TVNZ in New Zealand; JioCinema in India; WOWOW in Japan; Wavve in South Korea; Showmax and M-Net in Sub-Saharan Africa; OSN in the Middle East and North Africa; and Foxtel in Australia.
The series also stars Úrsula Corberó (Money Heist), Charles Dance (Game of Thrones, The King’s Man), Richard Dormer (Blue Lights, Fortitude, Game of Thrones), Chukwudi Iwuji (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, The Split), Lia Williams (The Capture, The Crown), Khalid Abdalla (The Crown, The Kite Runner), Eleanor Matsuura (The Walking Dead, I Used To Be Famous), Jonjo O’Neill (Andor, Bad Sisters), Nick Blood (Slow Horses), Sule Rimi (Classified, Andor), and Florisa Kamara (Eastenders).
The 10-part first season is based on the seminal novel by Frederick Forsyth and the subsequent award-winning 1973 film from Universal Pictures. A second season will presumably take it beyond the original source material, however, the creators of the show had already diverged from the novel and film to contemporise the story, so going beyond it shouldn’t be an issue.
Season one was written and adapted by Ronan Bennett, creator and writer of the critically acclaimed ‘Top Boy’. Internationally award-winning Director Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones, Luther, Boardwalk Empire) served as the lead director.
Gareth Neame and Nigel Marchant are Executive Producers for Carnival Films. Redmayne is also an Executive Producer, and Lynch a Co-Executive Producer on the project. Sam Hoyle is the Executive Producer for Sky Studios. Sue Naegle serves as Executive Producer and Marianne Buckland as Co-Executive Producer. Christopher Hall is Producer and Emily Shapland is Co-Producer. Frederick Forsyth is Consulting Producer. The series is produced by Carnival Films, which is part of Universal International Studios, a division of Universal Studio Group, and was commissioned by Sky Studios and Peacock.
‘The Day Of The Jackal‘ Season 1 can be found via Sky On Demand and NOW streaming service in the UK, and on Peacock in the USA.
