Eddie Redmayne’s Day of the Jackal has come out swinging, a remake of one of the most celebrated spy thrillers in modern times, based on the seminal 1971 thriller of the same name, written by Frederick Forsyth. The show, which is now streaming on Peacock, decided to add one unforeseen twist in the tale, which not only changes the way the story is told but also sets up a wider narrative for the story to go into.

The Day of the Jackal || Credit: Peacock

Eddie Redmayne spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how this was the plan from the get-go, and how the production wanted to continue The Jackal’s story beyond what the novel and previous adaptations have managed to do.

The show’s twist ending is a major deviation from the original story

In the original ending of the film, the Jackal is executed by the investigating officer that has been assigned to him, bringing his story to an end. However, in the latest adaptation of the novel, Redmayne instead found his character killed the intelligence operative assigned to him, making sure that The Jackal lives to star in another season. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter about the change, he said:

When I signed on for the series, there was an aspiration for the Jackal story to continue. So I knew that was going to be the twist.

With this original twist in the show, the narrative for the next season is set, the plot of which was also speculated about by Eddie Redmayne in the interview. He had a lot of spotlight after the show and received a lot of acclaim for his acting and execution in the story, which he called a ‘celebration of performance’, talking about the nature of his character’s ability to disguise himself.

Eddie Redmayne has some ideas about what the sequel of the show could be

Eddie Redmayne as the Jackal in The Day of the Jackal || Credit: Peacock

When talking about the future of The Day of the Jackal, Eddie Redmayne talked about how his character might deal with the conflict of the coming season. While nothing official has been released, Redmayne said:

It’s a big question, how much the money means to him. I think it’s more about disrespect, isn’t it? There’s an addict quality to the Jackal, an addiction to what he does,

The idea that The Day of the Jackal has been turned into a franchise that can last more than a few seasons, has very exciting prospects. Usually when things are adapted from books and other media, there is this unspoken need to be as accurate as possible to the source material. However, The Day of the Jackal might have opened a new way of adapting stories.