The BFI Southbank was ablaze with starry glimpses on Wednesday evening, as Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie heralded a new chapter in the iconic series, The Night Manager. The British actors graced the London venue for the season two premiere of the beloved BBC show, nearly a decade after its Emmy-winning predecessor.
New cast members, including Camila Morrone, Diego Calva, Indira Varma, Paul Chahidi, and director Georgi Banks-Davies, walked the red carpet, accompanied by Hiddleston, who made a point of shaking each photographer's hand before the flashes went wild. "I'm 10 years older, with a few more scars on the inside and outside," Hiddleston told The Hollywood Reporter about returning to the Bond-esque role of Jonathan Pine. "I love the fact that I feel I've lived more life, and I encourage everyone I come into contact with to embrace that. I have more life experience and more curiosity about the world and how it is, and I want to be more courageous, actually, about investigating the soul of this man."
In a departure from John le Carré's work, creator-writer David Farr reinvents the espionage thriller with Pine now living as Alex Goodwin, a low-level MI6 officer running a quiet surveillance unit in London. But one night, a chance sighting of an old Roper mercenary prompts a call to action and leads him to a violent encounter with a new player: Colombian businessman Teddy Dos Santos (Calva).
On this perilous new journey, Pine meets Roxana Bolaños (Morrone), a businesswoman who reluctantly helps him infiltrate Teddy's Colombian arms operation. Once in Colombia, Pine is plunged deep into a deadly plot involving arms and the training of a guerrilla army.
"It's terrifying," Garrett continued, "because here's the thing: You obviously set out to make something good, and when we made the first season, we were reasonably confident it was good. But that weird thing that happens, where it captures everyone's imagination... It's like magic, and the magic did happen, so it was great, and we take huge pride and pleasure in that. But it's terrifying to have the second one coming out, because you set a high bar, and we didn't go into it cynically, which is partly also why it took so long. You want to be sure that it's at least as good, and ideally better." Is it better? "I don't know. It's different. I think it might be."
Calva shared his excitement about joining The Night Manager crew: "I watched the first season before getting the casting, and [it was] a total 'Yes.' I mean working with [Hiddleston] and Olivia [Colman] and this is just an amazing franchise. I think it's pretty unusual to have a second season after almost 10 years, right? So that, for me, was also really exciting—to bring it back."
Morrone added about her character: "Roxana is a really tough, resilient, stoic woman. She carries herself in a very mature and sophisticated way, and she's a woman operating in a man's world. She's very much an equal to the men that she works with and that she surrounds herself with and she does business with." Three words to describe the new season? "There's adrenaline. There are a lot of unexpected twists and turns... And sexy. We're in Colombia, we're arms dealers; it gets quite messy and sexy."
The Night Manager returns on Jan. 11 on the BBC and Amazon Prime Video.
