Eddie Redmayne shot to international fame playing renowned physicist Stephen Hawking in the 2014 film “The Theory of Everything,” a role for which the British actor won an Academy Award. In the intervening 10 years, he received an Oscar nomination for portraying a transgender artist in “The Danish Girl”; starred in a Harry Potter spinoff trilogy, “Fantastic Beasts”; and this year was nominated for a Tony for playing the emcee in the latest “Cabaret” revival, among other projects in which he’s been involved.

Now, Mr. Redmayne tops the bill in “The Day of the Jackal,” the new Peacock mini-series having its premiere this week. Loosely based on the 1971 novel by Frederick Forsyth, which was made into a ripping movie two years later, the series naturally expands the narrative while updating the setting to contemporary times. 

As always, the story revolves around an assassin codenamed “The Jackal,” but instead of the book and film’s depiction of the methodical planning to murder Charles de Gaulle and its ultimate foiling, the program shoots its shot in its first episode with an assassination that proves successful. The mark is a conservative candidate for German chancellor, Manfred Fest, and with his death the British intelligence service gets involved, just as it does in the source material. 

Agent Bianca (Lashana Lynch) believes that the long-barrelled gun used in the shooting was made by a Northern Irishman who’s been on the run. Soon, she’s on the case to find the gunsmith. Meanwhile, the Jackal is refused payment for the German assignment (via encrypted messaging) but receives another, unrelated offer: to off a tech entrepreneur, Ulle Dag Charles, who is preparing to launch “River,” a project to “usher in financial transparency and global economic justice.”

Based on a viewing of the first three episodes, the series proves functionally entertaining as a modern-day techno-thriller, though a bit indistinguishable from other examples of the genre. Its look, featuring cold light, warm accents, gleaming surfaces, and dark screens — complete with a Bond-like title sequence and vampy theme song — is miles away from the gritty, naturalistic feel of the ’70s movie. 

As in much contemporary television, it also relies on countless pop/rock/alternative songs to fill in emotion and atmosphere, sometimes to the point that it seems more like a careful playlist than a show offering drama.

Other differences with the novel and the film stand out: the new Jackal smartly never meets with clients face-to-face; blows up apartments and cars he’s used in order to eliminate any evidence; and sometimes dons elaborate masks, outfits, and foreign accents while “working.” Mr. Redmayne embraces these disguises with gusto, not only demonstrating his acting skills but aligning the craft itself with subterfuge and villainy. 

The actor’s boyish, freckled face and calm, even bland, demeanor belie an almost lizard-like quality befitting a professional assassin who must look innocent yet be ready to kill or bolt at any moment. What the actor doesn’t possess is the offhand coolness Edward Fox embodied as the character in the film version. 

This is primarily due to the writers saddling him with a Spanish wife and young child. Indeed, not only do we occasionally see him in his Spanish villa doing his husbandly and fatherly duties, but there are also scenes involving his wife Nuria’s mother and brother, which come off clichéd at best and as unintentional satire at worst. 

The trio are unaware of what his career entails — he speaks vaguely of his “brand” — but the third episode’s cliffhanger ending sees them finding, while he’s away, his secret lair of guns, face molds, and other assassin accoutrements, with both The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and Etta James’s “Trust in Me” underlining the message.

Agent Bianca also has “trouble at home,” stemming from the old “unavailable spouse/parent” trope. Her husband and daughter display signs of growing impatience with her workload, and one wonders if they, too, will find themselves, either unwittingly or through frustration, enmeshed in her clandestine operations. For her part, Bianca wisely denies she has a family when questioned by an informant, and Ms. Lynch is adept at suggesting the anxiety beneath her office professionalism and field-work duplicity.

Nods to the 1973 movie pop up now and again, such as a white Alfa Romeo driven by the Jackal. Even a famous line, “We’re not terrorists, we’re patriots,” is said again, though instead of coming from the mouth of a far-right Frenchman, this time it’s voiced by Zina (Eleanor Matsuura), an American woman representing a British businessman/New York tycoon in seeking the death of Ulle — the implication being that the country she’s referring to is neither England nor America but Capitalism with a capital C.

While featuring well-executed action set pieces and a few clever sequences, what the new “The Day of the Jackal” hones in on in these early episodes is the connection between personal responsibilities and ethics, indicative via its multiple family plotlines and talk of “ends and means.” Yet with some more cold-blooded intelligence and a little less moral handwringing, it could really turn into a killer of a show.