The Tourist spoilers follow.
When you go abroad, you never want the holiday to end, and for us at least, the same can be said for The Tourist too.
Jamie Dornan's latest show was far twistier and way more riveting than your average BBC thriller, which is why we really hoped it would be renewed for a second season. And now, it has been!
Clearly, we were not alone in wanting more. At the start of 2022, the BBC revealed that The Tourist pushed iPlayer to its biggest festive day yet with 22 million streams across the service. That's a new record for the BBC.
In March, it was confirmed by Charlotte Moore, BBC’s Chief Content Officer, that there will be more adventures for us to get stuck into.
"In its first 30 days, 12 million people watched The Tourist – that's twice as big as the largest show, Stay Close, on Netflix," she said. "The power that the BBC has to reach millions of people is far greater than we perhaps realise."
With that in mind, here's everything you need to know about The Tourist season two on BBC.
The Tourist season 2 potential release date: When will it air?
While we do know that season two is at the very least on its way, they're going to test our patience on this one.
We know it will be back for six new hour-long episodes, and the Emmy-winning producers and screenwriters Harry and Jack Williams (who created Baptiste, The Missing and Liar) will be back as well. But apart from that, we know nothing.
Taking into consideration the series dropped on New Year's Day 2022, and at the time of the announcement in March no filming had commenced, it's unlikely we'll see anything for a while yet.
We'd hasten to guess at some point in 2023 at the earliest.
The Tourist season 2 cast: Who's in it?
The Tourist's first season revolved almost entirely around Jamie Dornan's amnesiac "hero", but his fate was left up in the air by the end of that truly depressing finale.
After all, The Man (now with his name reinstated as Elliot) made several attempts on his own life after discovering that, pre-amnesia, he was involved in a drug cartel and was directly responsible for the lives of two women he forced into trafficking for him.
That'll do a number on anyone if they truly believed they were a good person.
Dornan had previously told RadioTimes that The Tourist was originally set up to be a limited, one-off series. But, after 12 million people tuned in to watch within the first 30 days, the Fifty Shades of Grey actor discussed the possibility of him reprising the role for a second time.
"I guess it's a little bit open-ended with the end, people still have questions," he said. "Obviously we had good plans for it, wanted it, but the response to it, as you know, has been insane and the amount of people [who have] watched it, and the love for it is very real.
"I saw something the other day that they said that there's talk of... they'd be looking into how they could do a second series of it if there is a want, and it seems there is a want," he added. So who knows, the plan was only ever to play The Man once, but we'll see."
Dornan recently admitted he had never played a character before who didn't know who he is, so he had to pull on experiences where he felt "lost or afraid" to inspire him in his performance.
"I've never had to approach a character before who doesn't know who he is, so it was almost like a total opposite process for me of not allowing yourself a backstory and accepting every single discovery he has as something new," he told Variety.
"I often tried to consider myself in my most vulnerable moments, where I've felt lost or afraid, and draw on those."
"I think the way it plays with tones, often so abruptly swinging from drama to comedy," he added. "Just when you think you have a handle on what's going on, you're proven wrong."
So, if Elliot does survive and make a return, then we can probably assume that Dornan will be joined in season two by Shalom Brune-Franklin as Luci and Danielle Macdonald in the role of Helen Chambers.
During an interview with Phillip Schofield and Rochelle Humes on This Morning (via The Express), Danielle was asked if she would ever return for a second season. To which she replied: "Would I do another season of this? I would, of course!
"I loved the writing, I loved the character [and] I loved the world, I would hands down do it again but I have no idea if there is even any intention of that."
In terms of the other cast members, all of the following could also return for season 2:
Genevieve Lemon as Sue, Danny Adcock as Ralph, Damon Herriman as Detective Inspector Lachlan Rogers, Alex Andreas as Dimitri Panigiris, and Maria Mercedes as Freddie Lanagan.
Of course, it's not likely that Ólafur Darri Ólafsson and Alex Dimitriades will be back as their characters died in season one.
The Tourist season 2 plot: What will happen?
At the end of season one, viewers watched Elliot find out that he was a drug trafficker before losing his memory, subsequently sending him into a spiral in which he drinks a bottle of vodka and swallows a whole lot of pills in an attempt to end his life.
Meanwhile, a disgusted Helen has had time to think about who he is and is advised by a friend to accept him for who he is now. As Elliot lies dying, she messages him an emoji of a burrito, which was previously said to be Elliot's 'happy place'. After seeing the message, we see Elliot smile before the credits roll.
"After I finished the series, I called Shalom [Brune-Franklin] instantly,"Danielle MacDonald told us before the finale aired. "And I was like, 'I can't talk to anyone about this, because no one's read it, and I'm not allowed to say anything, so I need you to talk to me about it. We just need to talk about this whole situation.'"
Before the final episode was made available to us, Digital Spy asked Dornan and Brune-Franklin if they felt like season one tells a complete story or whether they would want to return one day.
The pair joked: "The whole series ends with Armageddon, so life doesn't exist anymore." But now that we have seen the finale, it's clear that there's at least some truth to this when it comes to the fate of Dornan's character. To read more on that and his chances of survival, check out our piece about the ending right here.
But what do the creators of The Tourist think? While chatting with RadioTimes, Harry Williams said: "I would love to make this show again with these people. I'm not entirely sure it's possible. I love the tone, I love the world. It's been our lives for three years and we've been very, very involved with it, more so than any other show."
"We've loved every minute. Normally you're sick of it by this point having watched 900 cuts of one episode but I still love it and I'd love to do it again."
Co-creator Jack Williams added that they are "talking about how we could return to this world", adding: "Yeah, this world and this tone. I feel like we're not done with that. In terms of the story, we'll see how it goes if people like it."
Leading man Jamie Dornan explained in March 2022 that he wouldn't be against a return, but noted to Entertainment Weekly: "That wasn't the plan, to be honest. We all signed up for one."
However, he's not against the idea of going back to Elliot's life and uncovering more, explaining it's a similar situation to The Fall, the beloved crime show in which he starred alongside Gillian Anderson. "The Fall was meant to be one series," he said. "There was big demand for The Fall, obviously, and we did a couple more [seasons].
"In the UK and Ireland and Australia, and anywhere it's been so far, people seem to love The Tourist, so who knows? I know conversations are being had. So we'll see what we get to, but I would love to."
So, taking into account the finale now we've seen it, there are two ways this show could go. The first would be to make it some kind of anthology, where the entire cast is wiped out and everything is reset, with a new 'tourist' to focus on with as much trouble as Jamie Dornan before them.
The second would be to allow the character of Elliot to survive and try and make peace with what he's done in his past in some way. Guess we'll find out either way soon enough.
The Tourist season 2 trailer: When can I watch it?
A trailer for The Tourist season two isn't available just yet, but when the series does get a release date, then we'd expect the trailer in the month leading up to the premiere.
When it does arrive, then, don't forget to come back here and check it out on Digital Spy.
Even suffering from amnesia is no excuse at this point!
The Tourist series 1 is streaming on BBC iPlayer and available on DVD and Blu-ray. Series 2 has been officially announced.
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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.
Freelance writer, Digital Spy
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