Hijack Season 2 Owes Idris Elba an Apology

Let’s face it: Season 1 of Hijack was not a masterpiece in storytelling, but Idris Elba made it endlessly watchable.

Part of that is Elba himself — his gravitas, his screen presence, the ease with which he makes you root for him even when you probably shouldn’t.

But Sam Nelson also worked as a character.

Watching him navigate the powder-keg situation on Flight K29 felt reassuring because he always seemed to have a handle on things, even when everything that could go wrong was going wrong. 

The calm, the control, the sense that there was always a plan forming wasn’t just Elba elevating weak material. It was a character built to carry that weight.

Hijack Season 2 strips both away.

Sam, as the Hijacker, Changes the Character

While it makes for a great trailer to have Sam Nelson become the hijacker, it doesn’t do much for Sam or Elba.

He is morally conflicted since he can’t reveal to anyone what exactly is going on, but it tortures him to do this to innocent people.

That confidence that ruled in Hijack Season 1 disappears into thin air as the character grapples with internal conflict and the situation’s unpredictability. 

Most of his conversations are limited to half-pleading, half-threatening the passengers to sit tight, and the ordeal would be over soon.

Forcing Sam to play hero and villain doesn’t give the actor something juicy to work with; it confuses and hollows him out.

A Grieving Sam Is Not a Fun Sam

The hollowing out continues with the decision to kill his son.

That single decision robs Elba of his natural charisma, because a grieving father is not someone who enjoys life.

Every passing minute felt like agony watching him go through the motions.

The worst part is that the show uses Kai’s death as emotional bait. By the time the season wraps up, that death is not a significant plot point but more like hollow torture porn.

Tying the hijack to the anniversary traps the character in grief so completely that nothing else can develop.

The writers are bent on building the narrative around the anniversary of Kai’s death, and it doesn’t gel with the other plot points.

And then the show changes locations and becomes flatter than a beer left out too long.

The Train Hijacking Was Plainly Boring

There is something about a plane at 30,000 feet in the air, isolated from the world and any safety infrastructure, that immediately introduces inherent stakes.

That’s why moving the story to the U-Bahn felt boring, and it’s not lost on me that we’re talking about a train with bombs strapped on it.

A plane is so contained that even a single point of failure could bring the whole thing down. A train? Well, you can always detach a car.

The fact that they kept stopping it and nothing happened proved that the stakes were artificially propped up.

There’s a reason Snowpiercer‘s logic established that the train must remain perpetually in motion or everyone freezes to death.

So not only was Elba saddled with a character he had not initially signed up for, but the show became fundamentally different, and there was nothing he could do to save it.

Hijack continues to succeed on Apple TV, and if they plan on a third season, the story should look different.

Fix it or exclude Elba.

What do you think, Hijack Fanatics? I know the season disappointed many of us. Would you watch a third season?

Let’s keep the conversation going — it’s the only way the good stuff survives.

Say something in the comments, share if you’re moved to, and keep reading. Independent voices need readers like you.