The Night Manager's executive producer Stephen Garrett, has said that the show had "always intended" the shock twist following Sunday night's episode.
The BBC drama, which is based on Jonathan le Carre's 1993 novel of the same name, stars British actor Tom Hiddleston, saw its latest episode welcomed the return of the villain played by Hugh Laurie in the first series.
In the first episode of the new series, intelligence officer Angela Burr, played by Oliva Coleman, confirmed the identity of a body believed to be arms dealer, Richard Roper played by Laurie, in a flashback scene set four years after the events of series one.
Speaking to the Press Association, Garrett said that showrunners "played on ambiguity" regarding Laurie's return to the show, and added that: "He was never not going to be in it".
"It was a question of, how do we bring him back in the most exciting way possible?", Garrett said.
He continued: "His end was sort of ambiguous. He’s bundled into a truck. He clearly owes some very bad people 300 million dollars, so it’s not looking good for him, but you don’t see anybody kind of shoot him or hang him or push him off a cliff".
Sunday night's episode saw Hiddleston's character, Jonathan Pine follow Roper's criminal son, Teddy, played by Diego Calva to a hidden location. It was then revealed that Teddy was working for Roper who was alive and living under the name, Gilberto Hanson.
"We really feared the cat would come out of the bag. We had so many kind of close shaves", Garrett explained. "But I’m really thrilled we got away with it because I think for viewers, it’s just incredibly pleasurable to have these surprises".
"At the end of the day, you just want to entertain people. Hopefully, that’s what we’ve done".
When asked if he had any more information to add, Garrett replied: "That’s a secret".
He added: "Are there things that will hopefully surprise and delight the audience? Yeah, absolutely. What are they? Well, you’re just going to have to keep watching".
The second season of The Night Manager saw Hiddleston's character thinking he had buried his past, living as a low-level MI6 officer, Alex Goodwin. But he is is later pushed back into action when he meets old mercenaries.
Having debuted in 2016, the drama is Emmy Award winning, and stars David Harewood, Tobias Menzies, and Tom Hollander, alongside Hiddleston, Coleman and Laurie.
It is available to view on BBC One and iPlayer with the next episode taking place next Monday (January 18) at 9pm.
In other news, Tom Hiddleston hinted that he would relish the opportunity of taking part in reality TV show, Traitors. More on this story here.
