‘Day of the Jackal’ EP in a season finale full of twists and turns and what’s next for the Jackal

When audiences first met Charlie Eddie Redmayne Day of the Jackalhe was fully disguised as an elderly guard who was doing the work of a contract killer. Jackal is cold, calculating, careful and precise. By the end of the show’s first season, he’s still calculating (and sophisticated), but not as cold, careful, or precise. It’s all part of Jackal’s story as a killer and as Charlie.

PeacockThis film’s latest original drama takes time to make the protagonist more than a mercenary; he’s a nuanced character whose problems with work-life balance and morality share parallels with his greatest foil: MI-6 agent Bianca Pullman. Day of the Jackal is a modern adaptation of Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel and based on the 1973 film. It centers on Redmayne’s hit man, his wanderings across Europe and the British intelligence agent who is chasing him. The 10-episode first season features Lashana Lynch as Bianca, Chukudi Iwuji as Osita Halcrow, Leah Williams as Isabel Kirby, Khalid Abdallah as Ole Dag Charles and Money Heist star Ursula Corbero, who plays Jackal’s unsuspecting wife, Nuria.

The story is an interesting game of chase when the Jackal realizes who is chasing him and how close he is to catching him. Once the finale is over, it’s anyone’s guess who will challenge him in Season 2. CNET had a chance to speak with executive producers Nigel Marchant and Gareth Neem about Redmayne’s scheming character and that explosive season finale.

Reader beware: Spoilers ahead.

Is Bianca Pullman’s fate really sealed?

In the final minutes of the season finale, Bianca and fellow agent/friend Vince follow the Jackal to his home in Cadiz, Spain. Not knowing where he is in the house, they decide to enter the mansion with guns drawn to look for him. They run into Nuria’s drunk brother with a gun who accidentally got into a shootout with the agents and died. This alerts the Jackal to hide in his mirrored closet, where Bianca is watching but unable to see him when they are facing each other in the reflection.

But she and Vince chase him out with the house alarm and engage in another shootout that leaves Vince dead and apparently Bianca as well. Viewers saw her shot – while wearing combat gear – and lying on her back with blood pouring from her mouth. Back at headquarters, Osita and Isabel talk about it two funeral for his people. Osita shakily deletes a text message from Bianca warning him that if anything happens to her, it’s because Isabel sent her on a mission after the Jackal.

Is she really gone? “That’s a really good question and they’re hard to answer because we don’t want to say anything,” Nim said. “You’ll have to wait a year later – or whenever – and we’ll come back with more to see how it turned out.”

The humanization of the Jackal was intentional

For those familiar with Forsyth’s book or other films based on the character, it’s clear that Jackal shows little affection or emotion in his interactions. Adding family, human connections, and a backstory for him was something the creative team decided to do early in the process, and was meant to extend the story for its 10-hour television format while setting up the character’s arc.

“We wanted to make an action-propulsive show, but at the same time we relied on characterization,” Marchant explained. “So I think that’s where we made the decision that we need to open this up, we need to see more.” He added that it allows us to see “more than spirit.”

Because this iteration is set in the present day, the show makes use of living in the digital age, setting it apart from the ’70s when moving around with fake identities required photo-swapping and forgery skills. This modern setting also allowed for the Jackal’s story to expand to explore his time in the military and how he became an assassin of many names.

“The moment you get into storytelling, it allows you to find out,” Nim said. “We had space – how did he become an assassin?” How did he become the best sniper in the army? And how did he meet his wife? How did he think it would be possible to have a wife and family while maintaining this completely unprecedented lifestyle?”

Neame shared that he found that to be one of the most interesting aspects of the show: balancing relationships when you’re in a certain job where that might not be possible. As viewers saw, Jackal’s marriage began to fall apart and Nuria eventually took off.

On the other hand, the series brings Jackal to a point where he starts to feel remorse for some of his actions. He shed tears over death and loss. What does it say about him?

“He’s a contract killer. He doesn’t mind. At one point he says, ‘I don’t care why you want this person killed.’ He’s pretty willing to do that,” Marchant said. “But as we see the show go on — and certainly toward the end of the series — and the wheels fall off, he kills more and more people to cover his tracks. That then has a much greater weight on his conscience and his soul.”

Marchant pointed out that viewers root for the Jackal, but something changes when he kills Rasmus. As the series moves through the last two episodes where he kills more people than he normally would, we see that it is “taking its toll”.

Nim notes how in the last episode Jackal is faced with confronting the elderly couple in the trailer, which is not something he wants to do. “I think he’s broken because everything got out of hand, but he also remembers what those guys did in that war crime — that war crime that kind of set him on his way.” He is no better than them now, and he is not. what he signed up for,” he said.

Day of the Jackal Season 2 will have more answers

A second season renewal for the Peacock series was announced in November, so fans will have to wait until then to see how those endings play out. While they couldn’t reveal anything about what to expect, Marchant says the audience will hopefully answer questions about what Jackal’s new priorities will be.

All 10 episodes of Day of the Jackal are now available to stream on Peacock.