What Will Happen In The Night Manager Season 3?

Last night’s gut-wrenching finale of The Night Manager season two was not the good-over-evil triumph fans had hoped for. As the episode built up, it felt like Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston) had hatched another risky, high-stakes plan that would finally bring down villainous arms dealer Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) – but in the final minutes things took a shock twist. The series culminated with a nail-biting showdown in the Colombian jungle, in which a web of betrayal and deception played out and resulted in some of the most devastating deaths of the show so far. 

Many questions were also left unanswered, and thankfully we won’t be left wondering forever as a third series has already been confirmed. But will we have to wait another decade? Here’s everything we know about The Night Manager season three.

Warning: this piece contains spoilers

The Night Manager Season 3: Everything We Know So Far

Has The Night Manager Season 3 Been Confirmed?

Yes, Hiddleston confirmed the BBC thriller will be returning for a third instalment during an appearance on This Morning. ‘I can confirm that there will be a third season,’ he said. ‘We always constructed this one at the beginning of a twelve episode story. It gave us greater scope, in terms of imagining where the story might go, knowing that we had another story coming.’

In another interview, he added: ‘It’s not in official pre-production, but it’s in official development… We’re working on it, we’re refining the story and the architecture of what we really like. It’s very exciting because we’ve always been able to plan season two and season three as a two-volume story – 12 hours and 12 episodes are very different from six episodes, so we know where the story ends.’

What Will Happen?

While the first series of The Night Manager was adapted from a 1993 novel by John le Carré, season two was an original story penned by screenwriter David Farr, who will also be writing season three. A lot happened in that series two finale, but there were many loose ends left untied, paving the way for the next chapter – which Farr has said will pick up shortly afterwards. So: how will Pine recover from all the trauma of season three? Not only was our protagonist outmaneuvered by arms dealer Roper, and left brutally beaten and bleeding in the guerilla HQ having once again narrowly escaped death (all thanks to series two’s hero, private detective Martin Álvarez), he witnessed Roper killing his own son Teddy Dos Santos (Diego Calva) – who Pine became close to during the latter end of the series. 

Image © AMC

Plus, he’ll soon find out the tragic news of the murder of his colleague and friend Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), who was shot dead at her home in France in the last few moments of the finale. Hiddleston has said season three will see Pine go to ‘very, very dark’ places – but no doubt Burr’s death will spur him on even further to seek out revenge.

On the topic of Burr, who was behind the shooting? Was it the doing of Roper’s accomplice MI5 chief Mayra Cavendish (Indira Varma) who Burr was onto? Farr has said that, although the question of who actually pulled the trigger is irrelevant, ‘her death will absolutely figure very strongly as an ignition point for the next season’. And when it comes to Cavendish, what pushed her to the dark side in the first place? The next chapter of the show will delve deeper into ‘what really drives her’, reveals Farr, noting ‘there’s much more to come from her.’ 

Who Will Star?

The cast for season three is yet to be announced, but it’s pretty much certain Hiddleston and Laurie will be back for round three of their deadly cat and mouse game. Farr also hopes to bring back Jonathan’s savvy sidekick Sally Price-Jones, played by Hayley Squires (‘she’s really exciting and beautiful, and there’s a kind of desire to honour Angela’s legacy in that way’). 

The season two finale also hints that Roper’s son Danny (Noah Jupe) will play a more pivotal role in season three, with some of the final scenes showing Roper picking him up from boarding school and taking him to their new house in Oxfordshire. Speaking about Jupe, Farr said: ‘We only used him lightly this season, but he’s very talented and he’s a lovely guy. So I want to write for him in season three, which is very exciting.’

Camila Morrone as Roxana in The Night Manager series 2. (Ink Factory/BBC)

It’s unclear whether Roxana Bolaños (Camila Morrone), a Colombia-born broker who becomes entangled in the dangerous arms deal, will return for season three. Following her betrayal of Pine, which ultimately led to Roper’s victory, we see her catching a flight to Miami, but is her story over? ‘My instinct is that I’m satisfied with that resolution and Roxana’s journey,’ says Farr. ‘But the honest truth is that we are still writing the third season as we speak.’ 

Fans are also speculating whether Elizabeth Debicki (who also played Princess Diana in The Crown) will return to reprise her role as Roper’s girlfriend (and Pine’s secret lover) Jed Marshall for season three. Farr told Esquire they haven’t approached Debicki yet, but a comeback hasn’t been ruled out.

When Will The Night Manager Season 3 Be Out?

There was a ten-year gap between the first and second seasons of The Night Manager, but luckily it looks like the third will arrive on our screens sooner than 2036. Speaking to Radio Times, Farr assured viewers that ‘we’re not going to have this whopping gap again’. Meanwhile, he told Esquire: ‘There’s definitely a sense of urgency this time. We’re not going to wait 10 years. We intend to make it in the way that we make it really good. I think people can rush things to get the next one out quickly. I think we’ve perhaps shown everyone that you don’t have to do that, but no, we won’t be waiting as long as that.’ However, it’s likely still a little way off: scripts are still being written and filming has not yet begun. 

For now, all episodes of seasons one and two are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.