Will Elliot and Helen be back in trouble for a third time?

By James Hibbs

Published: Monday, 01 January 2024 at 12:00 PM


All six episodes of The Tourist season 2 are now available on BBC iPlayer, reuniting viewers with Helen Chambers and mysterious amnesiac Elliot Stanley.

This means returns for Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald, while the action switched locations between seasons 1 and 2, with the new run taking place in Ireland, rather than Australia.

Something which has remained the same in season 2 is the number of twists and turns across the six episodes, with Macdonald telling RadioTimes.com: “There’s a lot of new characters and there’s a lot of twists and turns.

“I think Jack and Harry [Williams, show creators] are really good at setting up a bunch of things and then they unravel as the series does. And yeah, I think it’s very much the same.”

But, now that all the episodes are available and some viewers will have now seen all of the different twists unfold, will there be another season coming up, or is this the last we’ve seen of Elliot and Helen?

Read on for everything you need to know about the potential for The Tourist season 3.

Will there be The Tourist season 3?

Jamie Dornan's Elliot Stanley flees from a vehicle in The Tourist season 2
Jamie Dornan as Elliot Stanley in The Tourist season 2.
BBC

It hasn’t yet been confirmed whether The Tourist will be returning for season 3. At the time of season 1 coming to an end, it was suggested that the story had been entirely wrapped up then, but then the writers, Harry and Jack Williams, changed their minds. Therefore, it may not yet have been decided whether a season 3 would be in the offing.

It is likely that, if the plan were to make a second season, then Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald would both need to be interested in a return.

Dornan previously admitted that the location for season 2 was a key factor in his deciding to return, so it’s likely this would also be the case for season 3.

When asked at a Q&A for season 2 whether he would be up for a return for season 3, Jamie Dornan joked that “season 3 will be in Canada” and that “scripts are already written”, referring to the Williams Brothers’s suggestion that, before it was set in Ireland, season 2 could have instead been set in Canada.

For now it seems we will simply have to wait for more concrete information regarding the future of the show to be announced, but we’ll keep this page updated once anything is.

When would The Tourist season 3 be released?

Danielle Macdonald as Helen Chambers in The Tourist 2
Danielle Macdonald as Helen Chambers in The Tourist 2
BBC

While it’s difficult to tell exactly when a third season of The Tourist would be released, given that it hasn’t yet been confirmed, we can speculate based on the show’s previous release schedules.

The Tourist season 2 arrived on screens exactly two years after the first season, with the show in the coveted 9pm BBC One spot on New Year’s Day both times.

Were the series to return again, it could well wish to replicate the same format, and release its third season on New Year’s Day 2026.

Of course, it may not stick to this, but it certainly seems unlikely that we would get any new episodes before 2025 at the absolute earliest. We will keep this page updated as soon as any further information is released.