This post contains spoilers for the season finale of The Day Of The Jackal.
Last month, The Day Of The Jackal was renewed for a second season before the first had even concluded. That left a lot of questions about how the story would unfold and what would happen next. Would Lashana Lynch’s MI6 agent Bianca succeed in nabbing the Jackal (Eddie Redmayne), and go on to hunt down other criminals? Would the Jackal escape and go on to evade other law enforcement officials? Or would the cat-and-mouse game between the two extend into the second season? Now that the finale has aired we have more clarity—and a confirmation (via The Hollywood Reporter) that Redmayne will indeed return for more mayhem and murder next season. (Don’t keep reading if you don’t want to be spoiled!)
If you have watched Jackal to its conclusion, you know the show veered in a very different direction than the Frederick Forsyth novel of the same name. At the end of the book (and the 1973 film adaptation), the Jackal is found and killed. At the end of the first season of the show, Bianca does find and confront the Jackal, but this time he’s the one to kill her. He then sets off to find his family and seek revenge against Timothy Winthrop (Charles Dance).
In a recent interview, Redmayne told THR he knew about the finale twist going in, because “When I signed on for the series, there was an aspiration for the Jackal story to continue.” That aspiration turned out to be well founded, as The Day Of The Jackal became the most popular new series to ever launch on U.K. broadcaster Sky. On Peacock, it was a top five original streaming series in the U.S. in its opening weekend, according to Nielsen data (via THR).
Redmayne confirmed his return to the show in a Sky TV Instagram video, saying, “Thank you so much for watching and supporting The Day of the Jackal. If there’s one thing that the Jackal can’t stand, it’s a loose end. So we will see you soon for season two.”