Idris Elba’s 15-Part Thriller Is the Streaming Hit Critics Didn’t Predict

1 day ago 5

Published Mar 14, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT

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Critics have never been totally united on Hijack. Some love the ticking-clock tension, others think it's pulpy nonsense; the second season has inspired the same split. None of that seems to matter much to viewers, because they are still watching. On March 11, Hijack was #2 worldwide on Apple TV according to FlixPatrol, only trailing Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. In the UK streaming chart aggregation, it also showed up as the top-ranked Apple TV series within the broader market snapshot.

Season 2 debuted in January 2026 and shifts the action from a hijacked plane to a crisis on Berlin’s underground rail system. Idris Elba returns as Sam Nelson, with supporting players including Christine Adams, Max Beesley, and Archie Panjabi tied to the continuing story. And now, while the critics may be split, the show’s global performance suggests Apple has another straight-up audience-pleaser on its hands.

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Why Did Idris Elba Make 'Hijack' Season 2?

Speaking prior to the release of the second season, Elba admitted it was truly a challenge to keep the tension up after changing the setting from a plane to a subway car. After all, you can jump out of a subway car any time you want. Try jumping out of a plane, and see what happens:

“We wanted to find a way to keep the core tension, the claustrophobia. How do we do that? How do we keep the motion and the setup from the first season and make it make sense for the second? We landed on a train. It offers a lot of the same attributes. Then the question became how to build a story that connects logically from season one. It was a process of elimination. A train felt right.”

“It’s a TV show that has those old-school entertainment strands to it," he added. "Taking a character who goes through something like that and then figuring out how to follow up, examining his pain, his trauma, and the why of it all — it felt compelling. The second season is about understanding a little deeper how we got there in the first place. It's a compelling drama. We’re not changing the world. It’s escapism. But it lets us peel the onion back a little and get deeper into it.”

Hijack is streaming now on Apple TV.