When audiences first met Eddie Redmayne's Charlie in The Day of the Jackal, he was fully disguised as an older maintenance custodian carrying out a job as contract killer. The Jackal is cold, calculated, careful and precise. By the end of season 1 of this show, he's still calculated (and sophisticated), but not quite as cold, careful or precise. It's all part of the Jackal's story as a hitman and as Charlie.
Peacock's newest original drama takes its time building out the protagonist to be more than a mercenary handling business; he's a nuanced character whose issues with work-life balance and morality share parallels with his biggest foil: MI-6 agent Bianca Pullman. The Day of the Jackal is a modern adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's 1971 novel and gleans from the 1973 film. It's centered on Redmayne's hitman-for-hire, his jaunts across Europe and the British intelligence agent who's after him. The 10-episode first season features Lashana Lynch as Bianca, Chukwudi Iwuji as Osita Halcrow, Lia Williams as Isabel Kirby, Khalid Abdalla as Ulle Dag Charles and Money Heist star Úrsula Corberó, who plays the Jackal's unsuspecting wife, Nuria.
The story makes for an interesting game of pursuit when the Jackal realizes who is after him, and how close she is to capturing him. When the finale wraps, it's anyone's guess who will pose a challenge for him in season 2. CNET had the opportunity to chat with executive producers Nigel Marchant and Gareth Neame about Redmayne's crafty character and that explosive season finale.
Reader beware: Spoilers lie ahead.
Lashana Lynch as Agent Bianca Pullman in The Day of the Jackal.
Peacock/Marcell Piti/Carnival Film & Television LimitedIs Bianca Pullman's fate really sealed?
In the final minutes of the season finale, Bianca and fellow agent/friend Vince track down the Jackal to his home in Cadiz, Spain. Not knowing where he is in the house, they decide to enter the villa, weapons drawn, to search for him. They run into Nuria's drunk, gun-toting brother who accidentally gets into a shootout with the agents and dies. That alerts the Jackal to hide in his mirrored closet, where Bianca looks but can't see him when they're facing each other in the reflection.
But she and Vince flush him out with the house alarm and engage in another gun battle that leaves Vince dead and seemingly Bianca too. Viewers saw her take a shot -- while wearing combat gear -- and lie on her back with blood streaming from her mouth. Back at headquarters, Osita and Isabel discuss having two funerals for their people. Osita shakingly deletes a text message from Bianca warning him that if something happened 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 these are difficult ones to answer, because we don't really want to say anything," said Neame. "You'd have to wait a year down the line -- or whenever it will be -- and we come back with more to see how that's panned out."
Humanizing the Jackal was intentional
For those familiar with Forsyth's book or the other films based on this character, it's clear that the Jackal shows little affection or emotion in his interactions. Adding a family, human connections and a background story for him was something the creative team decided to do early in the process, and it's meant to extend the story for its 10-hour television format while driving the character's arc.
"We wanted to do an action-propulsive show, but at the same time leaning into the characterization," Marchant explained. "So I think that's where we made the decision that we've got to open this up, we've got to see more." He added that it allows us to see "more than just a ghost."
Because this iteration is set in the present day, the show makes use of living in the digital age, which sets it apart from the '70s where moving around with false identities required swapping out photos and forgery skills. This modern setting also allowed for the Jackal's story to be stretched out to explore his time in the military and how he came to be a hitman with many names.
"The moment you were taking up all that real estate of storytelling, it allows you to find out," said Neame. "We had the 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 was going to be possible to have a wife and family while holding down this completely unprecedented sort of lifestyle?"
Úrsula Corberó as Nuria in The Day of the Jackal.
Marcell Piti/Carnival Film & Television LimitedNeame shared that he found it to be one of the most interesting aspects of the show: Balancing a relationship when you're in a particular line of work where it may not be possible. As viewers saw, the Jackal's marriage began to unravel and Nuria took off in the end.
On the flip side, the series takes the Jackal to a point where he begins to feel remorse for some of his actions. He shed tears over death and loss. What does say about him?
"He's a killer for hire. He doesn't mind. He says at one point, 'I don't care why you want this person killed.' He's quite prepared to do that," said Marchant. "But as we see the show go on -- and certainly toward the end of the series -- and the wheels fall off, he's killing more and more people to cover his tracks. That then carries much more 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 final two episodes where he's killing more people than he normally would, we see it "takes a toll."
Neame notes how in the final episode, Jackal is faced with handling the older couple in the trailer, which is not something he wants to do. "I think he breaks down because everything is out of control, but also, he remembers what those guys did in that war crime -- that war atrocity that kind of sets him on the journey. He's no better than them now, and that's not what he signed up for," he said.
Season 2 of The Day of the Jackal 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 finale cliffhangers play out. Though they couldn't reveal anything about what to expect, Marchant says that audience will hopefully answer questions about what the Jackal's new priorities will be.
All 10 episodes of The Day of the Jackal are available to stream now on Peacock.
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