When Idris Elba boards a Berlin U-Bahn as Sam Nelson on January 14, he’ll stepping back into a world of hostages and extreme danger. Only the question this time will be: What state is Sam in and can he save the day again?
Speaking to Deadline in London late last year, the star and executive producer of the Apple TV thriller series talked through the mind state of Nelson, a talented business negotiator and ordinary working man who becomes an unlikely hero after a plane hijacking in Season 1.
As Season 2 gets underway, commuters on an underground train are taken hostage, and authorities scramble to save hundreds of lives. Nelson is at the heart of the crisis on board, as the authorities in Germany and the UK scramble to avert disaster. The likes of Toby Jones, Christian Näthe and Christiane Paul join the cast, with Christine Adams, Max Beesley and Archie Panjabi among the returners.
“We really thought about what we answered in Season 1 and the questions that were unanswered,” said Elba. “What happened to Sam? Is he alright? He saved a lot of lives and went through a lot of trauma.
“Psychologically, I was trying to put him in a very different place. Physically, there is a difference to the way he looks from Season 1 and that was intentional. When you find out what is going on through the season, you realize this is a broken man who is trying to find those answers.”
It’s fair to say Nelson is a different type of lead character than others Elba is known for, such as Detective John Luther from BBC and Netflix crime franchise Luther or Stringer Bell in HBO drama The Wire.
“Leading characters often have a lot of real estate to hold up,” he said of the role, which landed him an Emmy nomination first time around. “I’m lucky I’ve had these really big characters that audiences don’t mind watching for a long time. In this case, it’s very different from some other characters: He’s a broken guy.”
Jim Field Smith, the show’s lead director and co-creator alongside George Kay, also offered a view into Nelson’s mindset as the series begins.
“Our whole guiding principle with Sam was that I wanted him to start Season 2 as a completely different character from the Sam Nelson you’ve left behind,” he said. “In the very first frame when the camera resolves on him this season, you’re supposed to think, ‘What the hell’s happened to this guy?’”
Field Smith and Elba both act as exec producers for Hijack Season 2 alongside Kay, Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta and Tom Nash. 60Forty Films and Idiotlamp Productions are co-producing. They both talked about the extreme measures the production design team went to in recreating the U-Bahn in east London, UK.
“I wanted it be a perfect replica,” said Field Smith. “It couldn’t be conveniently slightly easier to film in, and that’s partly because I knew I wanted to film with the real deal in Berlin. It had to match. It had to be literally a millimetre perfect recreation, so that was a big challenge.”
Elba called building the train to scale a “massive” feat that allowed for a more dynamic filming environment than the relatively static situation of a hijacked plane. “There were a lot of people on the train,” he added. “There’s a lot of movement in and out trains, doorways, [and] movement along. There’s a lot going on.”
Field Smith said the production gave Elba “essentially free reign of the entire environment,” and allowed the direction to follow him through the various sociological make-ups of the different carriages. Furthermore, shooting underground allowed the story to explore how a major metropolitan city such as Berlin would respond to a hostage situation, especially one with an international element and British authorities also involved.
“It’s such a rich area that we would have been crazy not to lean into that a little bit,” added Field Smith, a British director with credits for The Wrong Mans, Criminal and Litvinenko who grew up in Berlin.
He was keen to point to the international nature of the show. “One of the great things about Season 1 is we had such a great global response,” he said. “It had an international aspect in that it had a plane take off from Dubai and was flying over all of these countries, and you’ve got their responses and how the UK government is managing that. In Season 2 the train is staying in one city, and really you have to bring the internationality to the show. There is an appetite for audiences to see stories that play out in multiple countries. What’s great about [Hijack] is it has that multilayered aspect to it.”
Apple TV relationship
Hijack Season 1 was developed and produced out of Elba’s first-look deal with Apple through his previous production house, Green Door. The deal ended in 2023, but Season 2 kept the two in business. We asked him on his views on such deals after his experience.
“There are really good, healthy example of putting together a commitment of creator and studio,” he said. “In this instance, that contract produced something really healthy. I hope they feel happy about it. I did, for sure.
“I don’t think it works for everything; In this day and age, creation can take many forms. I really enjoyed working with – and still work with – Apple, and enjoy that process. In a healthy deal, [a first-look agreement] is a really great space to be. I felt really lucky to have a guaranteed distribution opportunity and some support for making it.”
Following Hijack‘s launch on January 14, one episode will drop a week until March 4, when Sam’s fate – and those of the hostages – will be revealed. Whether that will be it for the character awaits to be seen. Elba and Field Smith suggest it will be, but they’re leaving the door slightly ajar – just in case more civilians need rescuing.
“I don’t know if Sam Nelson is going to get on another method of transport in his life,” joked Field Smith. “Season 3 might just be him in a hotel room chilling.”
Elba – who was recently knighted in the UK’s New Year’s Honour’s List – also played down the idea, laughing as he joked that a third run would simply see the psychologically-damaged character on a Lime bike – the pay-and-ride bicycles that litter London’s roads.
“I think we’ve squeezed the juice out of the transporter thing,” he said, before leaving a small carrot dangling. “Who knows, there are ferries,” he quipped. “There is definitely a sense that we like the Sam Nelson character and there is one more iteration of his story that I can think of – for sure. It might be a film, who knows?”
