Baptiste season 2: Everything you need to know
The first series of BBC One's The Missing spin-off Baptiste closed with Julien (Tchéky Karyo) delivering a seaside sermon and contemplating his future – though Edward Stratton (Tom Hollander) asked the fiercely intelligent Frenchman if he planned to "retire at last", a wry smile shared between the two men suggested that Baptiste had no such plans.
So what is next for Julien? Will Baptiste return? And what story might a second season tell? Here's all the facts we have so far – or as our hero might say, tout les faits.
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Baptiste season 2 cast: Who will star?
Tchéky Karyo would, of course, be back in any follow-up as Julien Baptiste – and it's a safe bet that he'd be joined by Anastasia Hille as Julien's wife Celia, Camille Schotte as their daughter Sara and possibly Omar Baroud as Sara's partner Ron.
Buy Baptiste: season one on DVD now
The latest surprise addition to Julien's family, his long-lost son Niels (Boris Van Severen), is also odds-on for a comeback.
Niels ended the first season in prison, having been exposed as a corrupt officer who aided the Brigada Serbilu, but Baptiste co-writer Harry Williams told Digital Spy, "Going forward, having Julien have this son who has done these awful things, is a great thing psychologically for him to dig into.
"Because he's Julien Baptiste, he's going to want to try and understand that in his own way. Niels will probably have more secrets. I think this won't be the last we see of him."
Harry and co-creator Jack Williams have also expressed an interest in bringing back Jessica Raine as Europol agent Genevieve Taylor, but they "don't think we'll be seeing Tom Hollander's character [Edward Stratton] again" – he's probably been through enough, in fairness!
Neither Martha (Barbara Sarafian) or Constantin (Alec Secareanu) survived the events of season one – the former was accidentally shot and killed by Niels during a stand-off with police, while the latter was murdered by his vengeful bosses, the Serbilu brothers.
Julien and Edward spent a good chunk of the first season attempting to locate Cristina (Freya Kingsley), a young woman who'd been kidnapped by sex traffickers. They were ultimately unsuccessful, but could her fate be resolved in season two?
Don't bet on it. As Harry Williams explained, "We were always quite sure that she should never be found, because I think that it was quite important to say: 'Look, he doesn't come in and save everyone. This [sex trafficking] happens all the time, and there are so many left undiscovered'."
That's the major characters from Baptiste all ticked off, but what about potential crossovers with its parent series The Missing? The Williams brothers have hinted that certain Missing characters besides Julien and his family could eventually resurface in the spin-off.
"We love the world of The Missing, and we always think of bringing people back," Harry said. "When it’s appropriate, I think we will. We haven’t this time [in season one], but the more it goes on, the more people Julien's encountered, the more potential there is for that."
Characters they've previously thought about revisiting include James Nesbitt's Tony Hughes, Jason Flemyng's Mark Walsh (both from The Missing series one) and Keeley Hawes's Gemma Webster (from series two).
Baptiste season 2 episodes: What will happen next?
The Serbilu brothers were a pervasive but unseen menace throughout the first season of Baptiste – could we meet them in season two, and perhaps dig into their "operation out in Bucharest"?
Jack Williams has confirmed that these are possible "avenues to explore" in future episodes. "Niels knows a great deal about the Serbilu brothers' operation, even though he's in prison," he said. "It's something that if we were to come back, we would definitely keep exploring."
For his part, Tchéky Karyo thinks there are still "a lot" of stories to be told with the Julien character. "I'd love to [do more], yes," he said before the first season aired. "I'm ready for it. I'm not tired!"
Baptiste season 2 release date: When will it air on BBC One?
Baptiste is yet to be officially recommissioned by the BBC, but if a second season gets the green light, expect to wait a couple of years for the sequel.
There was a two-year gap between the two series of The Missing and a similar gap again before the spin-off launched. The Williams brothers are busy chaps, y'see – not only have they been working on series two of Liar and upcoming thriller The Widow for ITV, but through their production company Two Brothers Pictures, they're also executive producers on everything from Cheat to Fleabag.
It's also important to remember that, if Baptiste isn't renewed, the brothers haven't totally ruled out the possibly of continuing The Missing, though any third instalment of that show would probably happen without Karyo as Julien.
"If we do revisit The Missing, I think that's maybe what we would do," Jack Williams has said.
Baptiste season 2 trailer: When can I see it?
The first full trailer for Baptiste (which you can watch above) dropped on January 4, 2019 – about six weeks before the series launched on BBC One.
So except a similar timeframe for the second season, which, again, we wouldn't expect any earlier than 2021.
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