Fans of The Night Manager, your patience is being rewarded in a major way. When the Tom Hiddleston-starring miniseries adaptation of John Le Carré’s espionage novel hit screens in early 2016, it quickly became a huge mainstream hit – thrilling viewers with its twists and turns, cementing Hiddleston’s on-screen cool factor, and providing another great screen version of Le Carré to sit alongside Tinker Tailor and A Most Wanted Man. But, understandably, people wanted more – and there was considerable chatter about whether there may or may not be more series on the way. Ultimately, nothing ever came to fruition.
Until now. As reported by Deadline, all these years later The Night Manager will indeed be back – and the show is confirmed for not one but two more seasons at least, with Tom Hiddleston returning to star as Jonathan Pine as well as executive-producing. Season 2 is set to film later this year, and will be set eight years after the events of the first series, to be shot by director Georgi Banks-Davies. Returning producer Stephen Garrett will be showrunner, with screenwriter David Farr also back on script duties. And while it’s unknown whether Hugh Laurie will once again be in front of the camera, he’s also back here as an executive producer. The new series will be heading to the BBC in the UK, with Amazon as a global partner.
Le Carré’s sons Simon and Stephen Cornwell stated that the first series was “a landmark moment for the golden era of television – uniting on-screen and behind-the-camera talent at the top of their game – and an audience reception which was beyond our wildest imagining.” And the pair approve of where the story goes next, expanding on the end of the original novel. “Revisiting the story of Pine also means going beyond the events of John le Carré’s original work: that is a decision we have not taken lightly, but his compelling characters and the vision David has for their next chapter were irresistible,” they said.
If Season 2 does indeed shoot later in 2024, we may well see Hiddleston back in Pine mode at some point in 2025. Fingers crossed, the wait for the already-greenlit Season 3 won’t be nine more years.