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January 2026 will be the month of the Tom Hiddleston takeover, with the long-awaited The night manager season 2 will arrive on the BBC from January 1 and on Prime Video from January 11. After 10 years, the cunning and distant spy Johnathan Pine returns… or is he?
Technically speaking, Hiddleston assumes a variety of identities in the new season, but for the sake of the UK's safety, I won't reveal which ones they are. When we talk about him again a decade later, he's still working with the Night Owls. But when he sees a henchman of the deceased villain Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie), all hell breaks loose.
Tom Hiddleston breathes fresh air into a creatively liberated season 2 of The Night Manager
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If you've ever seen a John le Carré adaptation, you'll know that second seasons don't really exist. However, with Carré's approval before he died in 2020 (according to his son and producer Simon Cornwell), a new creative concept was born. Therefore, The night manager Season 2 finds itself in an unusual sweet spot: sticking to a pre-constructed foundation while taking as many dramatic liberties as it wants.
Luckily for us, this works incredibly well. The BBC is known for its high-quality, high-stakes crime dramas, but in recent years, the pedal has been put to the metal. His production is confident, bold and invites you to be challenged in a way you never thought you would be. When it comes to Jonathan Pine's ever-changing identity, the challenge remains greater all the time.
I don't need to explain the fact that Hiddleston is very good at his job, and no matter how difficult or complex the action is, we will be guided with good hands (even if Pine himself is not making the smartest decisions). He's joined by a smorgasbord of new faces in season 2, with the irresistibly sexy Diego Calva playing the calculated and composed antagonist Teddy dos Santos.
If a romantic entanglement occurs between the couple, in the form of the intelligent but seductive Roxana, played by Camila Morrone, things get spicier by the second. I can't believe the BBC essentially recreated the viral video. Challengers scene at a pool party in Medellín (you can see a sneak peek in the trailer above), but hey, everyone's throwing caution to the wind these days… and it's hot.
Despite all the flourishes, the basics have not been lost
We don't find much frivolous fun when it comes to The night manager – you will need to tune death in paradise either Covert operations on iPlayer for that. But playing straight is exactly what's needed, and in some ways it goes against the gender stereotype that all the best streaming services have come to cultivate. For Pine, his business never rests.
Frankly, that's great news. Sure, you might risk your life in the name of fictional entertainment every two seconds, but the reward is colossal. Not only is Olivia Colman returning for more scenes in season 2 (and not just in a half-hearted cameo), but MI6 is now under the control of Indira Varma's chief of operations. It's slippery, so be careful with it…that's all I'll say for now.
However, it is Hayley Squires who I want to congratulate the most. Since his breakout performance in I, Daniel Blake, he has somewhat fallen under the radar when it comes to exceptional British acting talent. If Pine is the deciding factor, Squires' character Sally is a real glue holding the operation together. Without it, nothing would be achieved effectively, and I think that also applies to The night manager season 2 itself.
Basically, we're kicking off the year 2026 in the most engaging, intricate, and devilishly exciting way possible. Good things come to those who wait and we are certainly being rewarded.
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