Khalid Abdalla as Ulle Dag Charles in The Day of the JackalImage via Peacock
Reacher stands as one of Prime Video’s top flagship series. The action-packed show draws from Lee Child’s popular novels and features breakout action star Alan Ritchson, who has quickly become one of the most in-demand names in the genre. You can also catch him in his latest Netflix sci-fi thriller, War Machine. One of the key novels that inspired Lee Child while creating Jack Reacher was Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal, originally published in 1971 and turned into a feature film just two years later. In 2024, however, Peacock reimagined The Day of the Jackal as a new TV series starring Eddie Redmayne (Fantastic Beasts) and Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel). The series was met with strong critical praise, leading Peacock to quickly renew it for a second season.
Critic Jeff Ewingreviewed the series for Collider back at the end of 2024, and he agreed with the positive sentiment of most other critics, calling it a “tense and well-crafted update of a spy thriller.” He also said that the show “fits nicely into very contemporary conversations around global inequality and the lack of financial transparency that facilitates it,” and “capably provokes notions of a very believable contemporary underbelly of massively powerful players in our world, adding to both stakes and tension as the cat-and-mouse hunt between Bianca and the Jackal builds to a crescendo.” News broke earlier this year that production had finally begun on The Day of the Jackal Season 2, which has led more fans to check out the show. The Day of the Jackal is not only back in the Peacock top 10 in America, but it’s also in the VOD top 10 in several countries around the world on Apple TV.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
What Is ‘The Day of the Jackal’ Season 1 About?
The Day of the Jackal Season 1 stars Eddie Redmayne as The Jackal, Lashana Lynch as Bianca Pullman, Eleanor Matsuura as Zina Jonsone, and Chukwudi Iwuji as Osita Halcrow. The official synopsis reads as follows:
“The Jackal is an elusive assassin who makes his living carrying out hits for the highest fee. He soon meets his match in a tenacious British intelligence officer who tracks him down in a thrilling cat-and-mouse chase across Europe.”
Plot details about The Day of the Jackal Season 2 are being kept under wraps, and likely won’t be made available until Peacock begins officially promoting the show’s return.
Check out the first season of The Day of the Jackal on Peacock in America and stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of Season 2.
