The Night Manager season 2 spoilers won’t be found in this review.
It would have been easy to rush a second season of The Night Manager. Season one, based on John le Carré’s 1993 novel of the same name, was hugely successful when it aired back in 2016. Pretty much every key player, including Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman, and Hugh Laurie, were all nominated for Emmys. And hey, returning shows have been rushed into production for far less.
But like the MI6 agent at the heart of this story, The Night Manager took its time, delicately considering every possibility before finally committing to a course of action. One such possibility was to follow suggestions made by le Carré, who had some ideas for a follow-up despite never actually writing a full-blown sequel himself.
Press notes reveal that season two has gone a different route, however, with le Carré’s son Simon Cornwell explaining how his ideas “opened the door and gave us permission to start thinking about how we do a second season”.
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Instead, season one screenwriter David Farr has constructed an entirely new story built on the foundations of what came before, ignoring le Carré entirely. Add in the fact that director Susanne Bier hasn’t returned either, despite winning an Emmy for her work last time around, and it’s easy to see why there might be some cause for concern.
Thankfully, such concerns are unfounded. Based off the first two episodes we’ve seen, season two was absolutely worth the wait, slotting right into this world as if no time had passed at all.
Well, some time has clearly passed, because the first scene kicks off four years after we last saw Hiddleston’s lead in action. Jonathan Pine and Olivia Colman’s Angela Burr are reeling from the aftermath of their encounter with Richard Roper, with Burr saying they’ll sleep well now that he’s gone.
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After we jump forward again to the present, it turns out sleep is still not coming for Pine. Now living under the alias of Alex Goodwin, Hiddleston’s character has become a night manager of a different sort, swapping the hotel life for a key role in the MI6 Night Owls division.
Essentially, Pine has to stay up all night and stare at a screen, helping run covert surveillance ops for the British government. There’s still time to work out if those abs are anything to go by, but Pine is otherwise detached almost entirely from the world outside of work.
In the premiere, a work-mandated counsellor (played brilliantly by Kirby Howell-Baptiste) points out that this might not be ideal, especially given all the trauma he’s clearly holding onto still.
“If I’m honest, you frighten me,” she says pointing out that it’s the quiet ones who eventually “explode” in this line of work. “You need to talk to me Alex. Tell me who you really are.”
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Pine digs his nail into his hand as he tries his best to calmly reassure her: “I am a man who will not explode.”
Yet something certainly stirs, sending his carefully controlled life into disarray when an associate of Roper’s suddenly appears one day. And just like that, Pine’s thrown into another deadly criminal scheme that sends him across the world, this time to Colombia where illegal shipments herald something even more sinister.
So much is crammed into the first episode alone, hurtling through at the same breakneck pace as season one, but it never feels too rushed or overwhelming. There’s action, of course, but quieter character moments are prioritised still, such as a painful reunion between Pine and Richard’s son Danny (Noah Jupe).
Colman’s back too, but not as much as we’d like in these first two episodes. That opens up space for newcomers like Hayley Squires and Camila Morrone to expand this world in her stead. There’s a new scene-stealer on the case this time around though, Babylon star Diego Calva, who plays a Colombian businessman slash arms dealer.
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While Roper intimated through his wealth and entitlement and sheer force of will, Teddy Dos Santos is scary in a very different way, using his serpentine charm and devilish good looks to manipulate others and get what he wants.
In short, he’s scary in a hot way, pulling us and even Pine into his allure. Does our double agent actually enjoy the thrill of this connection that grows between them? Or is he just playing the long game like he’s supposed to?
“I’m not real,” says Pine at one point, hinting that underneath it all, this endless deception he’s built for himself is finally starting to unravel.
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That’s a fascinating thread to tug at, building on the original story in ways you’d imagine (and hope) le Carré would have approved of. Throw in some extra sex appeal, plus more gorgeous locations (shot by BAFTA-winning director Georgi Banks-Davies), and you’ve got yourself a follow-up worth savouring.
It’s too early to suggest with any certainty that this season is on par with the first, especially as we’re not even halfway through at this point. But with another season already commissioned after this one, it seems the BBC have a lot of faith in this story continuing regardless, and it looks like you should too based off these first two episodes.
The Night Manager season 2 is coming to BBC and BBC iPlayer on January 1, 2026.
After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.