In the echo of the last roar of a plane and the pulse of a city under it, Hijack Season 2 is bubbling with high-octane thrill and nail-biting action, now streaming on Apple TV+. Transporting the crises from the sky to the underground, the series now commands worldwide attention for its intense storytelling that makes a short train ride so gripping that even six months feels too short. However, the sequel's protagonist, Idris Elba, openly confessed his fears of failure ahead of signing on for the project.

The first season's breathtaking real-time thriller kept all eyes glued to their screen. Now, Season 2 tightens its screws in Berlin's heartbeat, enhancing Sam Nelson's fears and tension on a new battleground. Meanwhile, Elba's own fears surrounding the success of Hijack 2 were not irrational, if not the most believable.

Could lightning strike twice in the same place? For Hijack Season 2, that might be a possibility, but Idris Elba sure doubted it. Elba, 53, discussed his reservations about making the sequel with PEOPLE. According to him, the first season was self-contained and ideally should have been kept untouched lest expanding on the story might cheapen its lasting impact on the audience.

"It's a complex show to make. 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," Elba told PEOPLE.

Hijack was a unique achievement in terms of storytelling, with an intricate narrative production-wise. To reach that level of intensity again on a six-hour underground train trip in Berlin, the sequel's production would have to make the audience feel the same urgency of the crises, which Elba had initially doubted. But thanks to the excellent narration and direction, they nailed it, per the actor. 

"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," the Heads of State actor told the outlet, before sharing more filming challenges that the sequel met with.

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Elba’s doubts personally did not stop him from creating another masterpiece, but it was nonetheless tough like the first season.

The Apple TV thriller's Season 2, which began streaming on Wednesday, January 14, 2026, while the first season, stylised as H/JACK, took the streamer by storm in 2023, receiving 357 million minutes of viewing time by its finale on August 6, 2023. Shifting the narrative from an airplane to an underground train, the story faced ample challenges of its own. 

"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," Elba told PEOPLE, explaining the difficulties of holding the tension in an equally dangerous and unpredictable predicament like the first season, but this time in Berlin, inside an underground train full of people, where anyone could be a suspect. 

"That's challenging for many reasons. 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," the Luther actor added.

Created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith, Hijack Season 2 will run until March 4, 2026, with each of its eight episodes rolling out once per week. Catch Idris Elba facing his limits in the sophomore season of the Apple TV thriller this January. 

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  Are you excited to watch Hijack Season 2? Let us know in the comments below.