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Cast & Characters of Peacock's The Day of the Jackal Explained: Eddie Redmayne, Lashana Lynch & More
Like any international thriller worth its salt, The Day of the Jackal expertly juggles an eclectic cast of characters.
Like any international thriller worth its salt, Peacock's The Day of the Jackal series (the first five episodes are now streaming) expertly juggles an eclectic cast of characters — spies, informants, bureaucrats, tech moguls, greedy businessmen, and killers — situated on different sides of the law, thus creating a diverse and expanding web of geopolitical intrigue.
The show's title, as readers of the Frederick Forsyth novel are aware, refers to a lone wolf assassin (Academy Award-winner Eddie Redmayne) facing an existential significant threat to the shroud of mystery and anonymity that allows him to carry out hits in exchange for exorbitant paydays. What's the threat? A fiercely-driven British operative (BAFTA-winner Lashana Lynch) looking to arrest the slippery felon, even if it means pursuing him across various borders, jurisdictions, and ethical boundaries.
RELATED: After 007 Role, Lashana Lynch Wanted to Turn Down Day of the Jackal - Here's Why She Couldn't
"An audience loves a cat and mouse chase, you have someone you're cheering for at times and then you remember he’s a paid assassin," executive producer Nigel Marchant states in the official production notes. "We wanted the audience to root for both sides until you're put into a position where they're now inhabiting the same orbit. We talked a lot at the beginning about the paranoid thrillers and conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s, and used those as the backdrop to the show as well."
With a multitude of faces cropping up throughout the 10-episode adaptation that brings the 1971 source material into the modern day, let's take a look at the core cast and characters you'll be meeting along the way...
A Guide to the Cast & Characters of Peacock's The Day of the Jackal
Eddie Redmayne as the Jackal
A lethal, elusive, cunning, and highly methodical assassin-for-hire, the Jackal is an unparalleled killing machine. He can pull off a seemingly impossible job and then vanish without a trace via a wide array of inconspicuous disguises.
"The idea of starting out by playing a 65-year-old German cleaner, then moving through several other guises, along with the different languages — French and Spanish — mixed with the shapeshifting, the physicality, and the prosthetics, it was an actor's dream," Redmayne says. "They're all joyful things to engage with and a massive challenge. You sit there going, 'It's going to take quite a lot to convince an audience that I’m a 65-year-old German janitor!'"
Where you've seen Redmayne before: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trilogy, The Theory of Everything, The Danish Girl
Lashana Lynch as Bianca Pullman
The Jackal's ability to remain anonymous and out of prison begins to unravel when determined MI6 weapons expert Bianca Pullman decides to hunt him down. Bianca's unyielding determination to bring the Jackal to justice opens up a dangerous can of worms, not only for herself, but for her loving husband, Paul and neglected daughter, Jasmine (Cruella's Florisa Kamara).
"She has challenges coming out of her ears and to hold it together, she finds it difficult to confront her own mistakes," Lynch teases. "She is constantly grappling with being inherently selfish and doing the right thing for her family. Although we are from the same part of London, these differences in our lives were all things that I’d wanted to play as an actor for some time. There was no chance I could pass this up."
Where you've seen Lynch before: Captain Marvel, No Time to Die, The Woman King
Úrsula Corberó as Nuria
Even remorseless killers have room in their hearts for love, as evidenced by the Jackal's love interest, Nuria, who lives on a remote Spanish villa, completely unaware that her partner is a professional murderer. But certain secrets can only stay hidden for so long.
"In the original, you know nothing about the Jackal, he's a ghost. We knew immediately that it wouldn't work in a 10-part series," says executive producer Gareth Neame. "That's when the idea of him having a wife and child was established. It brings a whole other layer to the story and the character. In our version, although there's an air of ghostliness about him, we do meet his family. We ask how he sustains the life of an international assassin while having a wife and family to whom he can't explain everything."
Where you've seen Corberó before: Money Heist, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Snake Eyes
Charles Dance as Timothy Winthorp
Based out of New York City, Winthorp is a wealthy and ruthless business tycoon looking to hire the Jackal for a high-stakes job, whose price tag would allow the eponymous killer to retire for good. The job? Kill tech tycoon Ulle Dag Charles before he can strike a deadly blow against the super-rich and super-powerful.
Where you've seen Dance before: Game of Thrones, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Imitation Game
Richard Dormer as Norman Stoke
A legendary gun maker and Northern Irish radical living life on the run, Norman may hold the key to finding the elusive Jackal "I play the guy who makes the best rifles in the world and the Jackal comes to me to make the perfect rifle for a special job," Dormer said while in conversation with London Beautiful Life. "Most of my stuff's with Eddie. It's like a two-hander almost. A very intense kind of relationship."
Where you've seen Dormer before: Game of Thrones, Secret Invasion, The Watch
Chukwudi Iwuji as Osita Halcrow
A leading official at MI6, Halcrow doesn't think much of Bianca's tenacity, describing her as a right pain in the backside to his superior: Isabel Kirby. Once it becomes clear that MI6 has a mole in its midst, however, Halcrow's assessment of Bianca completely changes. "There were three VHS videos that arrived in my Lagos, Nigeria when I was a kid: Day of the Jackal, The Godfather, and Moonraker," Iwuji recalled to HeyUGuys on the Jackal red carpet. "So I've been with this since I was 6-years-old. I watched it way too young, but loved it."
Where you've seen Iwuji before: Peacemaker, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Designated Survivor
Lia Williams as Isabel Kirby
Osita's superior at MI6 and someone with a direct line to the foreign secretary, Isabel green-lights Bianca's mission to track down the Jackal, but can she be trusted?
Where you've seen Williams before: The Foreigner, His Dark Materials, The Crown
Khalid Abdalla as Ulle Dag Charles
Clearly based on real industry titans like Elon Musk and other tech billionaires, Ulle Dag Charles (an anagram of Charles de Gaulle, the Jackal's main target in the original book and film adaptation) is the richest man on the planet. Despite his immense wealth, however, Charles doesn't want to see the one percent hoard all the money for themselves. To that end, he plans to launch "River," a groundbreaking piece of technology that will turn the tide of financial imbalance once and for all by exposing shady revenue streams. As you can imagine, this seriously irks other members of the super-rich community like Timothy Winthorp.
Where you've seen Abdalla before: The Kite Runner, The Crown, Moon Knight
Sule Rimi as Paul Pullman
Bianca's loving and devoted husband, university professor Paul offers a counterpoint of normalcy to the pulse-pounding world of espionage. "I think it's quite important to see that part of a spy's life," Rimi told HeyUGuys, referring to the fact that while Bianca is great at what she does professionally, the character can't quite find the proper skills needed to fulfill her duties as a wife and mother. "When you see depictions of [secret agents], there's a very regimented way that they live ... but it's really important for you to see the other side of them, which is the human side ... the mundane part of the things they have to deal with and how they have to compartmentalize things."
Where you've seen Rimi before: Foundation, Andor, Cleddau
Eleanor Matsuura as Zina Jansone
A member of Timothy Winthorp's inner circle, Zina is the one who directly hires the Jackal for a very tricky — and very expensive — job: the assassination of tech mogul Ulle Dag Charles. With so much at stake and no room for error, Jansone is tasked with babysitting the Jackal and making sure Winthorp's $100 million investment isn't going to waste.
Where you've seen Matsuura before: The Walking Dead, The One and Only Ivan, Into the Badlands
Jonjo O’Neill as Edward Carver
All O’Neill could comfortably say during a red carpet interview with The Upcoming, is that Carver is "a spy," who works for Internal Services at MI6. As we learn in the first five episodes, the character is in charge of the mole hunt at MI6. O'Neill's mandate to remain tight-lipped about the production actually helped him get into the headspace of someone who works in a world of cloak and dagger operations. "It was kind of useful training to play someone at MI6," the actor said, going on to add that "Carver was really fun and interesting to play."
Where you've seen O'Neill before: The Fall, The Queen's Gambit, Pennyworth
Nick Blood as Vince Pyne
An old friend and colleague of Bianca's, Vince is one of the few people our protagonist can trust with the Jackal operation once it becomes clear MI6 has got itself a mole. "He's working in a police protection unit and then is brought on board and joins her team," Blood told HeyUGuys. "[He's] kind of like Bianca's right-hand man and offers her a sense of home; a bit of an anchor for her in this high-stakes world that they live in. I think what's beautiful with those two character is that while they're proper professionals, they also kind of have a lovey connection. You see their humanity."
Where you've seen Blood before: The Offering, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Euphoria
The first five episodes of The Day of the Jackal are now streaming exclusively on Peacock. The remaining five will follow every week until the double-sized finale Thursday, December 12.
