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As we prepare for the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards, Backstage is breaking down this year’s film and television ensemble nominees for your consideration. 

Main cast: Eddie Redmayne, Lashana Lynch, Úrsula Corberó, Chukwudi Iwuji, Lia Williams, Charles Dance, Kate Dickie
Casting by: Nina Gold and Martin Ware
Created by: Ronan Bennett
Distributed by: Peacock

This season saw a resurgence of sophisticated spy thrillers, including Sky’s adaptation of the 1973 film “The Day of the Jackal,” based on Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel. The adapted series sets itself apart by using the powerful cat-and-mouse dynamic between intrepid MI6 agent Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch) and a mysterious assassin known as the Jackal (Eddie Redmayne) to create suspenseful, character-driven thrills. While those two performances anchor the narrative, the supporting cast does admirable work creating a canvas of diverse personalities for them to play off of, expanding the original in unexpected ways.

Redmayne plays the titular assassin as an intriguing enigma, a variety of personalities begging the question of which one, if any, represents the true Jackal. In addition to prosthetics and disguises, the actor channels different personas through his posture, delivery, and physicality, selling the killer’s ability to slip into crowds and emerge in a new guise to avoid detection. Despite being an arch villain, Redmayne avoids the easy route of playing the Jackal as gleefully evil; he focuses instead on the Jackal’s sensitivity, intelligence, and professionalism, walking a fine line between frightening and sympathetic. When the series gradually reveals his backstory, we believe that somewhere in the cold-blooded killer’s mind is a remnant of humanity thanks to Redmayne’s nuance, giving the antagonist greater depth.

Contrasting Redmayne’s ruthlessness, Lynch plays up her natural warmth and charm as Bianca, an ambitious MI6 agent who must push back against bureaucracy in her pursuit of the Jackal. Because she also has a family and must traverse moral gray areas in the course of her work, Lynch’s likeability forces the viewer to draw their own conclusions as to the justification of her actions, such as authorizing a suspect’s torture in order to obtain life-saving information about her quarry. The accessibility of her performance raises uncomfortable questions about how different the two leads truly are, making for more complex drama.

Adding an element of dramatic irony is Úrsula Corberó as Nuria, the Jackal’s Spanish wife, who is blissfully unaware of her husband’s true profession. Projecting innocence, vulnerability, and humanity, she nevertheless evokes the fierce loyalty that places family above all else—and sells her own form of ruthlessness once the plot embroils her in more sinister events. When she teases her husband early on about his hidden dark side, the subtext is clear: Although she is an ordinary civilian, her intuition about the truth ensures she won’t stay ignorant forever.

Further muddying the waters are Chukwudi Iwuji and Lia Williams as Bianca’s superiors at MI6. The pair bring calculated coldness to their roles, casting suspicion onto their allegiances without tipping the hand to audiences on the many reversals and reveals. Kate Dickie also leaves a distinct impression as Bianca’s informant Alison, whose desperation forces her to compromise her entire life, reminding the viewer that those with less power will always suffer in the high-stakes spy games.

Elsewhere, the always-reliable Charles Dance makes the most of limited screen time as Winthorp, a shadowy figure who manipulates events from afar. Dance enhances the character’s arrogance and power through economy of movement and refined diction.

The ensemble delivers varying degrees of emotion, realism, and stylized performances. Their work is so finely calibrated as to create the impression of a vast network of operatives influencing world events, a compelling cross-section of global espionage that comments on contemporary economic issues as well.