James Oconner 
Anil Krishna 
Jonathan Millar 
The Day of the Jackal Season 2 Adds Netflix Star Pia Tjelta Alongside Eddie Redmayne
© Peacock
The Day of the Jackal is adding another familiar face to its cast as the hit spy thriller gets closer to its return. Norwegian actress Pia Tjelta, who recently appeared in Netflix’s Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole, has joined Eddie Redmayne for Season 2. Filming began in February 2026, and the new season is now in post-production, with a spring 2027 release planned. The show became a major hit after its first season arrived in 2024, so there’s plenty of interest in seeing what the Jackal gets himself into next.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tjelta has officially joined the cast, but the production is keeping quiet about who she’ll be playing. The role will also mark her English-language debut. She recently appeared as Rakel Fauke in Jo Nesbø’s Detective Hole, Netflix’s adaptation of the popular Harry Hole crime novels, and her other credits include Norsemen, State of Happiness, and Don’t Call Me Mama. The last of those earned her a Best Actress award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
It’s still too early to say how Tjelta’s character will fit into the story, but she has plenty of experience in crime dramas, which should make her a good fit for this kind of series. With the details being kept secret, fans will naturally start guessing. Could she be connected to the Jackal’s next assignment, someone helping the authorities track him down, or a person from his past? For now, those are just possibilities, and the show isn’t giving anything away.
The Day of the Jackal Season 2 Is Bringing in More New Faces
Tjelta isn’t the only new addition to the cast. Weruche Opia, Pablo Schreiber, and Matt Bomer are also joining the second season, giving the show an even bigger ensemble to work with. The first season largely revolved around the deadly game between Redmayne’s elusive assassin and Lashana Lynch’s MI6 agent, Bianca, but the new additions could give the story more room to move in different directions.
With more characters entering the picture, the Jackal may find himself dealing with people and organizations that aren’t so easy to predict. The series has always relied on his ability to change identities, stay one step ahead of investigators, and get out of situations that would leave most people cornered. A wider cast could complicate that routine, particularly if the people around him have their own plans and aren’t necessarily working toward the same goal. Exactly how these new characters connect to the main story remains a mystery, though.
The expanded cast also gives Season 2 a chance to take the action beyond the familiar cat-and-mouse pursuit of the first season. Intelligence agencies, private interests, and the people who profit from dangerous jobs could all become part of the picture. That’s a lot of ground for the show to cover, and it will be interesting to see whether it can make the bigger story feel as tense and personal as the original chase.
How The Day of the Jackal Stands Apart From Other Spy Thrillers
Spy dramas come in plenty of different forms. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, for instance, is built around suspicion, secret agendas, and the slow process of trying to uncover a mole inside the intelligence world. Slow Horses takes a different approach, following a group of sidelined intelligence officers who are often dealing with the mistakes and dysfunction of their own agency. Both shows find tension in the people and institutions involved, rather than relying on action alone.
The Day of the Jackal has a different kind of appeal. It puts the focus on a highly skilled assassin who can move between identities, cross borders, and disappear before anyone can get a proper hold on him. Technology and careful planning are a big part of the story, but so is the simple fact that the Jackal is very difficult to catch. The show also looks at a world where contract killing and private interests can become tangled up with international security.
Season 2 has an opportunity to build on that approach by bringing more people into the mix. With a larger international cast, the story could move beyond a straightforward pursuit and explore the complicated relationships surrounding the Jackal’s work. Whether that means new enemies, uneasy partnerships, or a closer look at the networks behind his assignments, the extra characters should give the writers more options. Of course, adding more moving parts doesn’t automatically make a thriller better; the challenge will be keeping the story focused while the world around the Jackal grows.
When Will The Day of the Jackal Season 2 Be Released?
Created by Ronan Bennett and based on Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel, The Day of the Jackal arrived in November 2024 with a modern take on the famous assassin. Eddie Redmayne plays the Jackal, a professional killer whose work puts him on a collision course with intelligence agencies across the globe. The series took the basic premise of Forsyth’s story and brought it into a world of modern surveillance, digital tracking, and increasingly sophisticated disguises.
The first season also featured Lashana Lynch, Úrsula Corberó, Charles Dance, Chukwudi Iwuji, Khalid Abdalla, Lia Williams, and Eleanor Matsuura. It proved to be a major success for Sky and Peacock, with a second season announced just two weeks after the premiere. The series also earned strong reviews, holding a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and receiving nominations from several major awards bodies, including the Emmys, Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards, and SAG Awards.
Redmayne’s performance was a big part of the show’s appeal, and he also serves as an executive producer alongside Bennett and Gareth Neame. Now that Season 2 has moved into post-production, attention is turning to what comes next for the character and how the series plans to follow up its first run.
The new season is expected to arrive in spring 2027. That gives the creative team time to build on what worked the first time around while introducing a fresh set of complications for the Jackal. The expanded cast certainly gives the show more possibilities, but the real test will be whether it can keep viewers guessing without losing the tension that made the original season so compelling. The Jackal has spent much of his life staying ahead of the people hunting him. In Season 2, he may have a few more people to worry about.
About the Author
