Fans of the 2019 film The Gentlemen will be buzzing to see the spin-off TV show is now on Netflix, starring Kaya Scodelario and Theo James in lead roles. But is the new version based on the original movie?
We’re always in the market for a Guy Ritchie movie, and The Gentlemen was no exception. Starring everyone from Charlie Hunnam and Matthew McConaughey to Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant, the film (which came out five years ago) followed an American drug kingpin who was attempting to sell off his cannabis empire, and set off chaos in the process.
This month, a TV show of the same name landed on Netflix [7th March], this time around following Eddie Horniman (played by Theo James), who unexpectedly inherits his father’s country estate – and the cannabis empire that comes with it. While he attempts to extricate his family from the criminal underworld, he’s sucked into the world of gangsters.
So, is The Gentlemen TV show based on the movie?
Essentially, it’s set in the same world, but without any connection to the previous characters. It’s not really clear if it’s set in exactly the same time frame, or five years after, like the release date. As director Guy Ritchie explained, “It’s a sojourn into aristocrats meeting world gangsters. The world is exactly the same. The aristocrats have got brilliant houses, lots of land but they don’t have any cash to live on.
“That’s why in our story the aristocrats are putting skunk farms in their back gardens. The show is about the transition, the evolution from zoo to jungle and how to hunt in the jungle to survive. If you like my sort of worlds, you should like this one.”
So yes, while it’s a similar set up in that there are huge drug farms hidden under posh aristocratic land, the stories are completely different.
The Gentlemen is now streaming on Netflix.
