- - Idris Elba Reveals He Had Some Trepidation About Signing on for “Hijack” Season 2: 'I Wasn't Sure' (Exclusive)

Sabienna BowmanJanuary 13, 2026 at 10:03 PM

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Apple TV

Idris Elba in 'Hijack' -

Idris Elba tells PEOPLE he "wasn't sure" if the magic of Hijack season 1 could be recreated

Hijack season 2 takes place aboard an underground passenger train in Berlin

Season 2 of the Apple TV thriller premieres Wednesday, Jan. 14

Idris Elba wasn't sure if lightning would strike twice for Hijack.

Ahead of the Apple TV thriller's season 2 premiere on Wednesday, Jan. 14Elba, 53, spoke with PEOPLE about the next installment in the series, and revealed he had a few reservations about continuing past the self-contained first season, which unfolded in real time.

"It's a complex show to make," the Luther actor tells PEOPLE. "It was really good and people really loved it. And can we do it again? I wasn't sure. As much as I loved the character — sometimes you've just got to move on, but I was really sort of compelled to see how we could do it and see if we can do it again, do it well, keep what the audience loved of the first season alive."

Apple TV

Idris Elba on 'Hijack'

Season 1 of Hijack, which earned Elba an Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series nomination at the 2024 Emmys, followed Sam Nelson (Elba), a corporate negotiator, as he found himself on a hijacked plane. Sam used his skills to attempt to reason with the hijackers and work with his fellow passengers to neutralize the volatile situation.

The second season finds Sam in the middle of an equally dangerous and unpredictable predicament, but this time he's aboard an underground train full of passengers in Berlin.

Elba shares that as an actor, he faced a similar challenge filming season 2 as he did in season 1. He explains that "the challenge is really trying to make an eight-hour flight or a six-hour train journey or whatever it is, keep that alive over six months."

"That's challenging for many reasons," he continues. "Six months is a long amount of time to be in one moment or the moment of several hours. And so that was challenging, just trying to stay in that tension mode for so long."

Apple TV

Idris Elba on 'Hijack'

Elba adds that it was equally important for him to keep "a through line of why" his character makes the choices he makes as the season unfolds. "What he's going through, where was he, who is he, what is he doing, all those things," he says. "But the truth is the script had all those answers. And as an actor, I would just plug into that."

"But oftentimes I had to ask myself or ask the director, 'What's just happened? Where are we? Who are we?' he continues. "And I think that's the main challenge, just making sure that there's a golden thread for the performance that makes sense."

The Heads of State actor says he hopes viewers will go into the season with the same level of scrutiny he did, and, hopefully, end up being pleasantly surprised by the journey season 2 takes them on. "As an actor, from a performance perspective, there's a lot there to chew on and get involved with, which I really enjoy doing," he says.

Elba adds, "But I really want the audience in the second season to, you know, naturally go in with scrutiny and be like, 'What? Hijack 2? That can't possibly happen again to this man, but here we are.' "

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Hijack premieres with two episodes on Wednesday, Jan. 14 on Apple TV. New episodes will debut Wednesdays until the finale on March 4.

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”