Peacock’s #1 most-watched show The Day of the Jackal has been renewed for season 2 and I couldn’t be happier

Eddie Redmayne preparing to take a shot with a sniper rifle in The Day of the Jackal.

The Day of the Jackal has been renewed for season 2. (Image credit: Sky)

Peacock and Sky have renewed The Day of the Jackal for season 2
The Day of the Jackal has been a huge success in both the US and UK following its launch
No other details about season 2 have been revealed yet

My day has been made as The Day of the Jackal has been renewed for a second season at Peacock and Sky.

The espionage thriller has been a successful hit on both sides of the pond since it aired on Peacock in the US and Sky in the UK, earning an impressive 84% Rotten Tomatoes score from the critics. The series became the number one most-watched show on Peacock and was a top five streaming original in the US for its opening weekend, according to Nielsen data. Meanwhile, it has become Sky's biggest original of all time, with 3 millions views in one week.

The Day of the Jackal is a modern day reimagining of Frederick Forsyth's 1971 novel of the same name. The 10-part series follows an extraordinarily elusive assassin, the Jackal (Eddie Redmayne), who carries out hits for the highest fee. After pulling off an impressive kill in Munich, he's hired to assassinate a powerful tech tycoon, but he soon meets his match in determined MI6 agent Bianca (Lashana Lynch) as she tails the elite contract killer in a gripping cat-and-mouse chase across Europe.

What can we expect in The Day of the Jackal season 2?

The Day of the Jackal | Official Trailer | Peacock Original - YouTube

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Since The Day of the Jackal is still releasing new episodes in both the US and UK, there's no news just yet regarding plot details for season 2, whether Redmayne and Lynch will reprise their roles, or when we can expect it to return to our screens.

The Day of the Jackal was previously adapted into a 1973 feature film, which saw Edward Fox play the titular Jackal, a hitman who is hired by the French militant far-right to assassinate president Charles de Gaulle in 1963.

Now 27 years later, Sky and Peacock have put a contemporary twist on the source material, which I think has really paid off thanks to the team of executive producers on board, which include Ronan Bennett, Gareth Neame, Nigel Marchant, Brian Kirk, Sam Hoyle, Sue Naegle and Marianne Buckland.

In an interview with GQ, executive producers Neame and Marchant revealed that they were initially hesitant to develop this iconic story into a TV series, but it was too good of an opportunity to turn down. "We both loved the book, and we saw the film when we were kids - I’ve seen the film many times through my life, and always really respected it. It’s such an iconic, gripping story, that to revisit that in a contemporary context, with all the benefits of a multi-episodic show … we thought that would be really interesting to take this much-respected IP and develop it this way” they shared.

With The Day of the Jackal armed for another season, there's one thing that I'm hoping for – more espionage thrills, spills, and kills.

After graduating with a degree in Writing and Film Studies, Grace dived into the world of entertainment where she started writing all about the must-watch shows and movies at What To Watch. Now Grace is on her next writing adventure at TechRadar, where she uses her expertise to help readers keep up to date on the biggest TV shows and movies in the ever-changing world of streaming. If she’s not writing about her passion for entertainment, you’ll find her watching reality shows while feasting on chocolate.