Back in 2020, the first series of Gangs Of London cut through the televisual landscape like a meat-cleaver – a sharp, violent, and seriously engaging crime saga with stellar fight sequences, as you’d expect from a show co-created by The Raid director Gareth Evans. And while it continues to be a long wait for the second series, it sounds like it’ll be worth the wait. The next set of episodes has officially wrapped shooting, with filmmaker Corin Hardy stepping up as lead director this time around having helmed four episodes of the first run – and returning star Paapa Essiedu promises a stellar return.
Speaking to Empire recently, Essiedu – who plays formidable criminal Alex Dumani in the series – opened up about his return to the show. “To see those familiar faces and already have a language that you’re working from… I’ve actually never gone back to a series in anything I’ve ever done,” he says. “We’re all really excited for how the world is going to get bigger and better and more bloody, and more exciting than ever before.”
And with the horror-minded Hardy leading the way this time, Essiedu teases even more brilliant brutality to come. “We were working with Corin again, and he’s one of those people who’s got such an eye for gory details that never ceases to amaze me. I’m like, ‘How do you sleep at night?’,” he laughs. “He's cinematically unparalleled, and can really strive for that scale that Gangs Of London does so well. Similarly, we know how each other works. So we don't have to do any of the niceties and pleasantries, even though we are very nice and pleasant to each other. We can just get down to the down and dirty of it.” London – and the rest of the world – is ready.
Read more of Empire’s interview with Paapa Essiedu – talking his upcoming sci-fi drama The Lazarus Project – in the Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness issue, on sale now and available to order online here.