He’s played a wizard, a scientist, a painter, a cosmologist, a meteorologist and a serial killer. His characters have fought for civil rights, made ground-breaking discoveries and flown on broomsticks.
Yet Eddie Redmayne is now stepping into his coolest role yet, playing a professional assassin in The Day of the Jackal – a new political thriller series from Sky.
And, over the weekend Sky released the show’s first trailer. Here’s everything to know about the major TV show arriving in November.
There is a trailer?
Yes, we’ve popped it at the top of the page. The first thing we see is a bullet being placed on a table. Then there’s a villa, somewhere in Southern Europe, baking in the evening sun. We see Redmayne’s Jackal driving up to the property, and then he’s in a dark room, prepping the gun he will use to take down his next victim. We see him alter his appearance, and stare down the barrel of a gun.
The camera is then on Lashana Lynch’s character, a tenacious British intelligence officer, who says she knows she can find him.
And the games have begun: in the rest of the one-minute clip, we see explosions, the Jackal driving in the car with a gorgeous woman, lots of hurried walking down corridors, gun fights, Lynch’s (currently nameless) character screaming, conversations in dimly-lit offices, and a gasp-worthy scaling of a London skyscraper.
The new series is based on a book?
Yes. The series is based on Frederick Forsyth’s acclaimed 1971 novel, which tells the story of an elusive killer who makes his money professionally bumping off high-profile individuals.
In the original book, which was turned into an Oscar-nominated 1973 film starring Edward Fox, it’s Deputy Commissioner Claude Lebel who starts chasing down the killer known as “the Englishman”.
In Sky’s update, the Jackal’s nemesis is played by the brilliant Lynch – giving the new series a truly glossy and taught James Bond feel (Lynch became an international star after her breakout role in 2021’s No Time To Die).
“After visiting Bond and after having been a member of MI6 through that character, I was hesitant to go back into that world and repeat myself and not have anything new to talk about,” said Lynch to Vanity Fair. “I wasn’t looking for stunts, I was looking for the opposite.”
But she was intrigued by The Day of the Jackal and came onboard – not only as an actor but as a producer for the first time.
What’s the plot of Sky’s adaptation?
Self-describing as “a high octane, cinematic, globetrotting ‘cat and mouse’ thriller”, the series is set to take the Jackal, a truly iconic character, and bring him into the modern day – an exciting and ambitious task.
Producers are ready for the challenge. Executive producer Gareth Neame said to Vanity Fair: “We want to do something that’s expressly British and that no one else is doing. While also being a big global star, Eddie is quintessentially English. That felt so right to us.”
“We are excited to bring to life [writer] Ronan Bennett’s re-imagining of Forsyth’s revered thriller in the complex world in which we live today,” he said.
The new show explores more of the Jackal’s personal life, which means, of course, there’s a gorgeous woman on the scene (played by Spanish actor Úrsula Corberó).
Who has made the new series?
The show has been written by Ronan Bennett, the creator of the original series of Top Boy. It’s been directed by Brian Kirk, whose credits include episodes of The Tudors, Luther , Boardwalk Empire, Great Expectations and Game of Thrones and the 2007 TV film, My Boy Jack.
