Sky series Gangs Of London is currently slated for a summer Digital, Blu-Ray and DVD release in the U.K. as reported a few days ago, but the show isn’t done making headlines this week.
The hit crime series, about the son of a gangster who vows retribution amidst the turmoil and upheaval within London’s seedy criminal and political underbelly, is now on par for a second season, and will be co-produced by AMC. The network has also acquired U.S. rights to broadcast the first season in a date to be announced for the Fall.
Gangs Of London hails from Pulse Films and Sister Pictures, and is the brainchild of Gareth Evans and Matt Flannery, the respective director and cinematographer behind Indonesian action crime saga, The Raid and The Raid 2. It stars Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders), Sope Dirisu (Humans), Colm Meaney (Layer Cake), Michelle Fairley (Game of Thrones) and Lucian Msamati (His Dark Materials).
“Not only is Gangs of London Sky’s most binged premiere box-set this year, it’s the biggest original drama launch on Sky Atlantic of the past five years.” says Sky UK’s Managing Director of Content, Zai Bennett. “It’s dark, dangerous and we are thrilled it is coming back for a second series. We couldn’t be more pleased to welcome AMC to our gang for Series two alongside the teams at Pulse Films, SISTER and Sky Studios. Will the Wallace family rise again, will the Dumanis remain loyal to their new allies and who is Elliot really working for? All these questions and more will be waiting for Sky viewers when Gangs of London returns to screens in 2022.”
Dan McDermott, President of Original Programming for AMC and Co-President of AMC Studios says “Gangs of London is a cinematic thrill ride that set screens ablaze with a stellar cast, elevated drama and epic storylines, and we couldn’t be more excited to raise the pulse of our audiences with this explosive crime series. We’re grateful for the opportunity to partner with Sky Studios, Pulse Films and SISTER to continue to push the boundaries on a bold new season of the series.”
Thomas Benski, CEO & Founder of Pulse Films adds “The overwhelming reaction and record-breaking success in the UK of the first season of Gangs of London has been phenomenal, and we are thrilled to continue this epic journey with such riveting characters for season two with our amazing cast, crew and partners. We look forward to teaming up again with our friends at Sky and to welcoming AMC on board as our US broadcast partner. AMC is the perfect home for our show, and we cannot wait for audiences stateside to experience series one this Autumn.”
The series was previously set to broadcast in the U.S. on Cinemax per the show’s original announcement, and that was long before HBO’s sister network decided to put the kibosh on its original content production with the launch of HBO Max, a move that also factored heavily on Cinemax’s other promising series drama, the Bruce Lee-inspired Warrior starring Andrew Koji, Olivia Cheng, Joe Taslim and Dean Jagger, back in January.
The upside to this, of course, is that home consumers who’ve long been loyal to AMC will easily be roped in, in the wake of the excellent show of action and drama performability with the hit steampunk martial arts fantasy series, Into The Badlands, which ran from 2015 to 2019. The story isn’t fully known just yet on the status for Warrior though, but if AMC snags this one too, it’s a welcome move, and will maybe even garner a third season of the Shannon Lee/Justin Lin/Jonathan Tropper-produced action drama. Fingers crossed.
Sky will expand its broadcast of Gangs Of London: S1 this summer in Germany and Italy. Bennett is commissioning the second season along with Cameron Roach, Director of Drama at Sky Studios. Gabriel Silver is exec producing for Sky alongside Thomas Benski and Lucas Ochoa at Pulse and Jane Featherstone at Sister.
NBCUniversal Global and Pulse Films will share further international licensing rights for the show.