Production on the second season of Stan Original The Tourist will begin in April, with Danielle Macdonald and Jamie Dornan returning to lead the cast.
Whereas season one was filmed in rural South Australia, the new episodes will be set against the background of Dublin, as Elliot (Dornan) and Helen (Macdonald) travel to Ireland together.
In the first instalment, Elliot found himself in the middle of a cat and mouse in the Australian outback with a vast tank truck, all the while trying to figure out who he is and how he ended up in the hospital.
A year on from their rural adventure, the new season sees him on a quest to rediscover his roots in the wake of the car crash that left him with severe memory loss. Whilst Elliot fights with his own demons, Helen is left to pick up the pieces of a larger mystery; forcing them both to confront foes, old and new.
The BBC commissioned the new season in association with Stan and Germany’s ZDF, with international sales to be handled by global partner All3Media International.
Creators Harry and Jack Williams return as writers, with the pair also executive producing for Two Brothers Pictures, alongside Dornan, Daniel Walker and Sarah Hammond.
Nawfal Faizullah is executive producing for the BBC, and Cailah Scobie and Amanda Duthie are executive producing for Stan. Alex Mercer steps in as producer of the new season.
Fergus O’Brien directs the opening block with Johann Perry as director of photography, while Louise Kiely is casting director.
Scobie said that Stan was pleased to be able to deliver more episodes of the mystery thriller following the success of the first season.
“Originals are a key pillar of our content strategy and are amongst our highest-performing programs in terms of subscriber acquisition and audience engagement,” she said.
“The first season of The Tourist was one of our most successful original series and we are delighted to be working again with BBC One and Two Brothers Pictures, bringing Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald back to our screens for this thrilling season return’.
In a statement, Harry and Jack Williams said they were “hugely grateful” for the response to the program, which they described as being unlike anything they’d written previously.
“It’s been an exciting journey getting stuck into that world again with the quirky characters that were so loved, and seeing where we could take them next, whilst continuing to deliver a tonally unique and off-beat drama,” they said.
Dornan and Macdonald also expressed their excitement at the upcoming shoot, with the former expecting audiences to be pleased by “how well Ireland and its characters are utilised to keep them guessing as the tale progresses”, while Macdonald looked forward to “another wild adventure with an amazing cast and crew”.