Series are for summer. The summer months are ideal for diving into new stories, in both comfortable episodic doses and marathon format (from the couch). And there are few safer options to fully immerse yourself in a new fictional universe than a good thriller. Especially if it's starring Idris Elba.

In Hijack, flight KA29 is hijacked 20 minutes after taking off from Dubai to London. Passengers and crew fear for their lives, desperate to contact their loved ones for help.

At the center of it all is Sam Nelson, the character played by Elba, a man traveling with hopes of rekindling his relationship with his ex-wife and seeing his son. He is a successful financial negotiator who steps up with a daring strategy, using all his cunning to try to save the passengers' lives.

Told in real-time

This is the premise of this tense and claustrophobic seven-hour thriller, narrated in real time in the pure style of 24 (one hour of flight per episode), in which the protagonist tries to implement a bold plan to negotiate with the hijackers inside the plane itself. As the events intensify onboard, the ground investigation reveals how dangerous the group behind the hijacking is, and everyone is racing against time.

Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife, Blindspot) plays Zahra Gahfoor, an anti-terrorist agent who is on the ground when the plane is hijacked and becomes part of the investigation. The cast also includes Kate Phillips (Peaky Blinders), Max Beesley (The Outsider), Eve Myles (A Very English Scandal), Neil Maskell (Litvinenko), Aimee Kelly (The Personal History of David Copperfield), Mohamed Elsandel, and Ben Miles (Andor), among others.

'Hijack in the Air'

The seed of the series

The series is created by George Kay (Lupin, Criminal) and Jim Field Smith (Criminal, Truth Seekers), who have written the scripts and directed the episodes respectively.

"I was on a Eurostar passing through a tunnel when the train suddenly stopped," explained Kay at the series presentation press conference attended by EL ESPAÑOL last summer.

"I knew everything was fine, but I thought about what would happen if there was a crisis inside," he says. "I looked around and thought: How would we manage as a group if something happened?

The creator tried to imagine each person's reaction in the carriage. "Who are these people when you look beyond prejudices and first impressions?" he points out. And all that train of thought made him think of terrorist attacks, what happens "when things get ugly and governments are pushed into extreme situations."

From that experience came the seed of the series, in which the action was transferred to a plane because it seemed more visual and because it is designed with a class system that reminded them of a moving society. "It was interesting in a situation like a hijacking because it puts all people on the same level regardless of how much they paid for the ticket. Classes disappear; everyone is in the same problem."

Idris Elba in 'Hijack in the Air'

The character of Idris Elba

"Sam Nelson doesn't have the skills of a marine, a soldier, or a policeman, but because of his imposing appearance, it seems like he does," Kay explains. "So it was fun to play with what the hijackers think of Sam Nelson and what Sam Nelson thinks they think of someone else and all those things. He has many layers."

The character played by Idris Elba is a negotiator, but a financial one. He is the person you turn to when dealing with large corporate mergers and acquisitions to help close the deal.

"I'm a big guy, so theoretically, I could overpower the hijackers, but my character isn't trained for that, he struggles out of desperation," explains Elba. For the creators, it was very important "not to have a hero with all the necessary skills. We wanted a real person we would recognize from the real world. Sam has to rise above his normal experience to try to resolve this."

Why watch it

"If you like thrillers and mysteries, this series has all those elements in the main story," says Elba. "The season lasts as long as the flight, so it's a drama that unfolds minute by minute. It's a slow-burning thriller. The twists are certainly surprising, and we believe the audience won't see them coming."

Idris Elba has been nominated for Best Leading Actor in a drama series at the Emmy Awards to be held next September.

*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence