Peacock has dropped the new trailer for The Day of the Jackal, a TV series based on Frederick Forsyth’s iconic spy novel of the same name.
The globe-trotting thriller stars Eddie Redmayne as an unrivalled and highly elusive assassin known only as the Jackal, who makes his living carrying out hits for the highest fee. But following his latest kill, he meets his match in a tenacious British intelligence officer (Lashana Lynch) who starts to track down the Jackal in a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase across Europe, leaving destruction in its wake.
In addition to Redmayne and Lynch, the series stars Úrsula Corberó (Snake Eyes), Charles Dance (Game of Thrones), Richard Dormer (Fortitude), Chukwudi Iwuji (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), Lia Williams (The Crown), Khalid Abdalla (United 93), Eleanor Matsuura (The Walking Dead), and Jonjo O’Neill (Pennyworth). Ronan Bennett (Gunpowder) serves as writer and showrunner, with Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones) directing.
While speaking with Entertainment Weekly last month, Redmayne said the series will give more insight into his character than the 1973 movie was able to. “One of the things that appealed to me about doing this series was, in Edward Fox’s version — it’s two hours, that movie — Edward is so filled with charisma… and kind of wit and elegance, but you never get to learn anything about it,” Redmayne said. “I wanted to see if through this 10-hour thing, we could get to know someone, but always be second guessing.” Redmayne added that the 1973 film was “one of those movies that my family would watch again and again and again.“
“And so I thought, wow, this is bold, that they’re going to try and reimagine this. And what I read, I just found completely thrilling and compelling, and at each moment it threw me off course and it kind of discombobulated me, but I couldn’t stop turning the pages,” Redmayne said. “I hadn’t done television for a few years, but the idea of getting to spend a proper amount of time with this enigma felt like great material to mine.“
The first five episodes of The Day of the Jackal will premiere on Peacock on November 14th, followed by weekly episodes until the double-episode finale on December 12th. In the UK, the series will premiere on Sky on November 7th.
