Eddie Redmayne's Day Of The Jackal to continue at Peacock
The thriller series scored major ratings wins in the week since its premiere.
Photo by: Marcell Piti/Carnival Film & Television Limited (courtesy Peacock)
One Day Of The Jackal just isn’t enough Jackal for Peacock. How about a week? Maybe even a month? The possibilities are endless now that the streaming service has renewed the cat-and-mouse thriller for a second season. Loosely adapted from the novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth (and the 1973 film adaptation), Day Of The Jackal stars Lashana Lynch and Eddie Redmayne as an MI6 agent and an assassin (the titular Jackal), respectively.
A.V. Club reviewer Brian Tallerico was not a particular fan of the series—”It’s as if someone wrote a two-hour film and was then forced to pull it way past its breaking point, resulting in not just repetition but nonsensical character behavior, a true sign that the writers have lost their way,” he wrote in his C- review—but the series has reportedly made a big splash. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Day Of The Jackal “ranked among the top five original streaming series in the U.S. for its opening weekend, based on preliminary Nielsen data,” and in the U.K. became Sky Atlantic’s best series debut in two years. Strong early numbers are obviously to thank for the fact that the show got a second-season greenlight just a week after its U.S. premiere. (The first five episodes debuted on November 14, while the remaining five will release weekly ahead of the two-part season finale.)
Peacock has steadily been building its slate over the past four years, but this year in particular marked major moves in the drama space. The streamer launched several big-budget dramas with high-profile talent, including the Gladiator-esque historical drama Those About To Die from director Roland Emmerich, starring Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins, as well as the Liane Moriarty adaptation Apples Never Fall starring Oscar winner Annette Bening. Day Of The Jackal also lined up its bonafides with an Oscar winner and a James Bond alum as its leads. However, as of this time, it’s unconfirmed if Redmayne and Lynch will both return when the series comes back for its second season.