Warning: SPOILERS for Hijack season 1 finale!

In Hijack, skilled corporate negotiator Sam Nelson is on a seven-hour flight from Dubai to London that gets hijacked by a group of criminals. Sam must use his negotiating skills to try to keep himself and the other passengers alive while also thinking of strategies to retake control of the plane. However, as the flight gets closer to its destination, not all is as it seems, with the motivation of the hijackers and how many passengers are actually involved coming into question.

Hijack stars Idris Elba, who is also an executive producer on the series. Hijack was created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith. The action thriller also stars Archie Panjabi, Christine Adams, Max Beesley, Eve Myles, Neil Maskell, Kate Phillips, and Jasper Britton. Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and the show covered here would not exist without the labor of the writers and actors in both unions.

Related: Hijack: Every Character's Role In The Stock Market Scheme Explained

Screen Rant caught up with executive producer Hakan Kousetta to talk about Hijack. He discussed Sam's decision to get back on the plane in the Hijack finale and what Elba brought to the role. Kousetta also shared whether he'd like to see Hijack continue for a second season in some way.

Hakan Kousetta Talks Hijack

Screen Rant: I love the show! Every time I watch it, I am on the edge of my seat, even though I know what's coming. It is so great.

Hakan Kousetta: Oh, brilliant. I'm glad you love it. That's so cool. Have you seen it all now? Have you watched the whole thing?

Yeah, I watched it a couple of times because I watched the screeners originally when we got them early, and then I've been watching it week by week as it comes out still.

Hakan Kousetta: Okay, that's cool. I've been doing the same with my family actually. It's quite surprising. Probably watched it about 100 times, but there's still moments I get sort of caught up in the intricacy of it all and the energy of it all. And it's hilarious. It's so funny. We've got a family screening at seven tonight, actually. So it's been quite, quite cool. Quite looking forward to that.

That's awesome! I love that. Can you talk to me a little bit about collaborating with Idris Elba both as the lead of the series, but also as a producer?

Hakan Kousetta: He's a lovely man. He's been wonderful to work with. He came on the project quite early, actually, we were sort of developing it. In it's sort of early stages and it was one of those perfect sort of marriages really. Where we started that the original project as a concept was just a one page idea that came from George Kay and Jim Fields Smith. So you have this sort of one page outline of a story about a plane being hijacked and they're sort of central character, sort of outsmarting the hijackers in a kind of slightly ambiguous way. And it was one of those things that you instantaneously get, you see it straightaway.

And Apple had introduced us to Jim and George and sort of said, "Look, you guys should work together on this idea, because we think it's really cool." So we started that process, and it was in the middle of lockdown when we couldn't physically spend any time with each other and not definitely not in enclosed rooms anyway. And so we'd meet in the park and have conversations about the show and walk these miles and miles around London parks to do it. And then as it sort of started to garner some shape Apple sort of facilitated the introduction of Idris to the porch because they had a deal with him Green Door.

And [Apple] said this could be something that he'd be interested in as well. He read the same thing I did, and instantaneously got it and said, "This could be amazing." And so he came on really early. So it's been a wonderful sort of collaborative experience to go through all of that, get the show into the shape that it was, and then ultimately film it. He was great partner.

And then the show has so many great twists. I thought the reveal of why the hijackers were actually doing this was so great and then that there were actually inside men on the plane. What kind of inspired some of those unexpected twists that we get throughout the series?

Hakan Kousetta: George is the lead writer on the show and I think he always wanted to ensure that there was a real sort of propulsion to the story. That we kept the energy of that story going and the way you sort of, there's a lot of bear traps in a show like this, because it's seven hours, it's real time. If I said to you, "Right, you got to spend seven hours with us on a plane," you'd be like, [Groans]. It could be the dullest thing ever. Right? It's sort of arduous in it's sort of proposition.

But I've described Georgia as a bit like a sort of Swiss clock maker. He's brilliant at putting these sort of intricate elements together, that all kind of work and function brilliantly well. And I think one of those elements for the show was this idea that you would sort of shock and surprise in each chapter of the story, there'll be something that you didn't foresee and something you didn't expect.

And I think that's what sort of makes it so captivating and thrilling. It's that you're with Idris in those moments as well. You're sort of with your protagonist suddenly going, "Oh, wow. I thought it was this and now it's something completely different." And there's something quite sort of chess move-y about that. I think all the way through, it's suddenly that a new move comes out of nowhere and you've got to find a way to deal with it, and it's just great.

I mean, it's an amazing element of the story that'll keep the momentum of it going in that way. And keep surprising, but in a way that doesn't sort of piss off your audience. In a way that doesn't sort of make them feel silly. It's not a rug pull. It's just a surprise and a thrilling surprise.

I thought it was great. And then one of the moments I love in the finale is when Sam gets back on the plane, so why was it important to have him have that final confrontation instead of ending up with him negotiating for the landing?

Hakan Kousetta: Yeah, I think there was a lot of debate about that part of the story. How we would end the story because that often is the way with these things it's like, how do you end that story? Especially with a show, that's a closed ended series and I think the overall feeling was that we've been on such an emotional journey with the characters and as you've seen in the show, it actually does get quite emotional towards the end. And you have this terrifying, we call it a clanding. Not a crash, not a landing, but something in between.

You have this sort of terrifying moment, and I think it felt like it would be sort of unfinished if Sam's character wasn't faced with the sort of final showdown of Neil's character. It just sort of feels like it's something that we needed to kind of, because they go on an emotional journey together and there is obviously, a lot of highly charged and negative overtones between their relationship. And it sort of felt like a way of resolving that part of the story, whilst also resolving the story of what happens to the passengers on the plane.

It was definitely kind of that big, satisfying moment. I thought it was so fun.

Hakan Kousetta: Yeah, he's got him. It's like, he's done. You kind of need that. Right? Otherwise it would have been, or we've landed, and we got off, and then that's it. It was a bit more to it.

Yes, I completely agree. And then what did Idris bring to the role of Sam that wasn't necessarily on the page?

Hakan Kousetta: Oh, well, that sort of speaks for itself, really. His presence is so magnetic and he's so captivating. I think it's easy to underestimate the challenge of a role like that, because there's huge sort of swathes of sequences where he's not speaking. It's all written on his face. It's all in the performance of him inhabiting that character. I think he does an incredible job of like, you're really with him for so much of that story, aren't you? You really feel his anguish and his doubt.

There's something really, I don't know, slightly refreshing about that as well, I think, because he's a bit of a throwback really isn't a hero that doesn't necessarily have to do a lot of talking. He doesn't give a lot of speeches. He's not sort of grandstanding. It's just he acts with his presence and his sort of ingenuity, which I think is a great thing to pull off in terms of performance from Idris.

I agree. I was so impressed with how you guys balanced these really high stakes, action packed moments with these very intimate performances. I thought that was one of the coolest things of the show. And then, so this is obviously a closed series, but I'm curious. Would you be interested in kind of continuing this with different heroes in different high stakes situations like this?

Hakan Kousetta: Well, producers always want to do a second season. I'm never gonna say no to the proposition of that, but that's a question for Apple. You should ask those guys, but we'd definitely be up for another season. Definitely.

About Hijack

When a plane from Dubai to London is hijacked Sam Nelson, a business negotiator with a knack for getting what he wants, steps up to try and find a way out of this. Over the course of the seven-hour flight, authorities scramble looking for answers on the ground while Sam and the other passengers do everything they can to survive as they try to find a way to take control back of the plane.

Make sure to also check out our Hijack interview with Idris Elba.

All 7 episodes of Hijack are available on Apple+ now.

Source: Screen Rant Plus