Ancil
After ‘House’ was canceled many were wondering about Hugh Laurie’s next big move. Was he going to retire and enjoy the benefits of showbiz, or was he going to return even bigger and better? Well, in 2016, we found out when the BBC released the super popular new series called ‘The Night Manager’. The hit show stars Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, Elizabeth Debicki, and Olivia Colman. It garnered many awards from BAFTA, the Primetime Emmys, and Golden Globes. It even has viewership levels in its first season quite similar to that of Empire in its third season. The first episode garnered 10.18 million viewers in the UK, and it managed to maintain its viewership of around 10 million throughout the season. And to top it all off, it got a rating of 8.2/10 on IMDB. But was this all enough for the show to get a second season? Let’s explore.
The Night Manager Season 2 Renewal Status
According to reports from Deadline, The Night Manager has been renewed for a second season by Amazon Prime and the BBC. Amazon Prime and the BBC have allegedly made a two-season order.
The new season was reportedly set to start filming in 2023 in London and South America under the codename “Steelworks”. According to the report, Tom Hiddleston is set to return as the titular character Jonathan Pine.
David Farr, who wrote the original, is set to write season 2. But director Susanne Bier may not return to helm the second season. She told Radio Times:
“I’m not doing Night Manager 2. I wasn’t sure that I would do my very best work the second time round – so I decided that I should probably not do it and have somebody [else direct it]. I just got worried that I would repeat myself or do something which wasn’t as great, but I think somebody else is going to do an amazing job out of it.”
She then told Broadcast:
“We all very much want to do a season two, but the thing we absolutely do not want is to do something that does not live up to the level of season one. That would be a really bad idea.”
David Farr had also mentioned that he wasn’t doing season 2 but it seems like his tone has changed since then. He told Digital Spy:
“I was never confident that I was the right person [to write a second series]. And then having [Hanna] greenlit, I was like, ‘This is something I really connected to. I know where I’m going, very clearly’. It’s just a personal thing. I’m sure that they will get there, with that show, eventually.”
And ‘Hanna’ has gone on to be a big hit on Amazon Prime, cementing Barr’s place as a great writer. But now that Hanna is over it’s hard to say what’s going to happen next with Barr. Another thing to consider is that ‘The Night Manager’ is based on a novel of the same name, and since season 1 covered most of the story, the second season lacks source material. Need I remind you what happened to Game Of Thrones when the screenwriters ran out of source material? So it’s likely that season 2 may never see the light of day.
The Night Manager Season 2 Release Date
Considering the script difficulties, we can’t say for certain when season 2 will premiere, if it premieres at all. For instances like this, the Trinikid team likes to use past seasons and production statuses as a ruler to measure the potential release of the new season, but given that it has been almost seven years since season 1, it’s anyone’s guess now. If Deadline’s report is right and the show is already filming later this year, then we can expect a 2024 release.
The Night Manager Season 2 Cast
It has been heavily rumored that the main characters will be returning. So we can expect Tom Hiddleston to return as hotel night manager Jonathan Pine, Hugh Laurie as arms dealer Richard Roper, Olivia Colman as intelligence operative Angela Burr and Elizabeth Debicki as Jed Marshall, Roper’s girlfriend. The long delay could simply be because of the main stars’ busy schedules, making it tough to get them all in the same place at the same time, especially Olivia Colman, who has been very busy the past couple of years as she has signed on for a whole two seasons of Netflix’s ‘The Crown.’
According to a ‘BBC insider,’ the team is “just working on the story, and then it’s down to availability.”
The Night Manager Season 2 Plot
This new season has no source material to work with, as it was based on a stand-alone novel. So the BBC has the opportunity to create something fresh and new that the audience hasn’t seen before. Given how season 1 ended, we can assume that Jonathan will fulfill his promise by visiting Jed and her son in America. We may also find out what happened to Roper after he was ambiguously taken away in a van.
