Strike Back showrunner Jack Lothian tells how the series evolved

By Brittany Frederick | Mar 26, 2019

A scene from the Strike Back season 6 premiere. Photo Credit: Hal Shinnie/Courtesy of Cinemax. /

Strike Back has reinvented itself again, and showrunner Jack Lothian told Hidden Remote how he’s shaped the series before the season 6 finale.

Strike Back stands out for a number of reasons, but one the Cinemax series doesn’t get enough credit for is how it’s evolved. There are three distinct incarnations of the show, each with their own different cast, themes and style—including the current version of Section 20, which finishes their latest mission Friday.

Jack Lothian is the series’ showrunner, with previous Strike Back experience and having been a fan before that. He spoke to Hidden Remote about how he went from writing the finale of the Damien Scott and Michael Stonebridge era, to bringing Section 20 back in a whole new form.

He also teased the upcoming finale and whether or not fans should be looking for any clues since it’s been revealed that next season will be the last.

Learn more about the evolution of Strike Back in our interview with Jack Lothian below, and then don’t miss the Strike Back season 6 finale this Friday at 10 p.m.

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Hidden Remote: You joined Strike Back in season 4. How did you originally get involved with the show?

Jack Lothian: I came on in the final Scott and Stonebridge series. I was asked to come on and write two episodes in the middle of the North Korea [storyline], and then production shut down for a while.

I ended up rewriting bits of episodes 1-4 that hadn’t been shot yet, and then ended up writing on the last bit of episodes as well, which was a big honor.

[It was] exciting and sad, because I was a fan of the show. So to be able to end the Scott and Stonebridge era was a huge honor, but it was also a bit depressing.

When you were writing that last episode, did you have any idea that you would be returning to Strike Back someday? Were you writing with that as a possibility?

We were discussing the possibility of doing a movie down the line. Certainly that was sort of at the back of my mind, that would be something that I’d love to do. But in terms of it coming back [as a series], I was pleasantly surprised to get the phone call to say that they were thinking of bringing it back and would I be interested in doing it.

What was the creative process of rebooting Strike Back? How did you decide what you wanted the show to be, what kinds of characters you’d be looking for who would be different from the Stonebridge and Scott era?

One of the broadcasters, Sky in the UK, was keen for it to become more of an ensemble show which has its own set of strengths and difficulties. There’s a reason so many kind of buddy cop things have two people rather than four or five. In terms of who the characters were and what we were doing, it’s tricky, because when you’re following Scott and Stonebridge, it’s a bit like being told you’re going on stage after Elvis. How do you follow that?

Really it was just trying to find a group of characters that hopefully the audience could connect with and we could have fun with. Maybe the idea was if Section 20 came back they’d be a little more dysfunctional, and they’d be sort of soldiers who were on the scrap heap, rather than the competent Stonebridge model.

Whoever the characters are, the key to Strike Back is that you’ve found cast members who can bring them to life, and come into their own. How have you been able to write with this current ensemble?

Especially in a show that’s being rebooted, in the first season you’re sort of trying to discover the characters and how they gel with the actors. Whereas [when] you move into a second season, you can feel a bit more confident in what the actors can bring, knowing what their strengths are.

Our cast contribute a lot in terms of how they like to see things in the characters; they start to understand the characters and start to inform the writing. Certainly at the end of last season, I said if there’s anything you want to explore, anything that interests you in your character that you’d like to lean into, let’s talk about it and let’s work it in.

I think that’s paid off this season. I was happy with the first season we did, but I always felt like we could really take it up a notch and I feel like we’ve tried to delve a bit more into who they are.

As far as writing the storylines, are there Strike Back elements that carry over regardless of the cast, or have you had to write completely different material for this version?

I feel because a lot of the people who work on the show are still the same people who worked on the previous [seasons], although it’s a new version of the show, it’s still very much in the same universe and the same style.

I suppose the hardest thing is to make sure we’re trying to do something new, or even when we’re doing something familiar to find a fresh twist on it. That’s sort of the trickier thing, because you look back over the seasons—those wonderful Scott and Stonebridge years and all the amazing stunts and plots they did—and it’s always about finding something new that’s been left over.

The series is known primarily for its action, but doesn’t get enough credit for how well written its characters are. How do you balance action with character development so efficiently?

It’s tricky, because in the edit we do cut out a lot of those character things. The show is so focused on driving forward and pushing those action scenes, so what we end up with is kind of a tip of the iceberg. It’s always a great shame that we have to lose some more of the character moments.

But it is unlike any other show I’ve worked on. If you just have pure character stuff it oddly slows the show down, but at the same time if the audience doesn’t know these people, then they’re not going to care about them. It’s all about the characters really first and foremost.

This week we’ll see the finale of Strike Back season 6. Did you know season 7 would be the last when you wrote this? Are there any hints as to how the series will end?

You’re sort of aware when you come to a season finale that it could be the last one ever. I was fairly confident we’d get another season or hopeful we’d get another season. I’ve worked on shows before where we’ve ended a season on a cliffhanger and never come back; I’ll never do that again.

So the seasons can be self contained. We sort of quietly reboot the show between seasons anyway for anyone that sort of hasn’t tuned in before. But I would say next season is going to very much be about what it means to be Section 20 for the past, present and future.

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Strike Back airs Fridays at 10 p.m. on Cinemax. For more on Strike Back and other Cinemax shows, follow the Cinemax category at Hidden Remote.