When The Gentlemen landed on Netflix in March 2024, it arrived carrying a weight most spinoffs never shake off – Guy Ritchie’s name, a beloved 2019 film, and the very real risk of feeling like a watered-down rerun. Instead, it did something trickier: it took the bones of that film’s premise – a reluctant aristocrat discovering his family estate is secretly propping up a cannabis empire and built something that could stand entirely on its own.
Theo James traded his usual brooding intensity for a quieter, sharper kind of charm as Eddie Horniman, a soldier-turned-duke who has to out-think criminals twice his experience just to keep his family’s estate intact, while Kaya Scodelario’s Susie Glass emerged as the show’s real center of gravity, running an empire with a calm that made every scene she was in feel dangerous.
Now, after more than two years, Eddie and Susie are back and this time, the ambition isn’t just staying alive. The Gentlemen Season 2 picks up with the two of them actively expanding Bobby Glass’s operation overseas, trading the muddy fields of Halstead for the lakeside villas of Italy, even as the empire’s founder starts making decisions from behind bars that could unravel everything they’ve built. With a bigger international cast, a Season 3 renewal already locked in before Season 2 has even aired, and one very persistent Meghan Markle rumor hanging over the whole thing, the stakes around this show have never been higher – on screen or off it.
The Cast of Netflix’s The Gentlemen – Returning Faces and Who’s New
Theo James returns as Eddie Horniman, now considerably more comfortable operating in the criminal underworld than the reluctant heir he played in Season 1.
Kaya Scodelario is back as Susie Glass, alongside Ray Winstone as her father Bobby – now running the business from what the show has described as a surprisingly comfortable prison cell. Daniel Ings returns as Eddie’s chaos-prone older brother Freddy, and Joely Richardson, Vinnie Jones, Giancarlo Esposito, Ruby Sear, and Pearce Quigley all reprise their Season 1 roles.
The new additions signal exactly how far this season’s ambitions stretch. Hugh Bonneville – instantly recognizable as Lord Grantham from Downton Abbey – joins a cast that also includes Michele Morrone, star of the globally massive 365 Days franchise, Italian actors Benedetta Porcaroli and Sergio Castellitto, Mercury Prize-winning musician-turned-actor Benjamin Clementine, TV presenter Maya Jama, and professional boxer Chris Eubank Jr. making his acting debut. It’s a genuinely unusual mix of pedigree – prestige British drama, European genre stardom, and real-world celebrity – all funneled into one crime saga.
The Gentlemen Budget
Netflix doesn’t publish official series budgets, and The Gentlemen is no exception – no per-episode figure has been officially confirmed. The closest available reference point is the 2019 film that inspired it, which was made for a comparatively modest $22 million and went on to earn $115 million worldwide. Given the show’s expansion into international locations for Season 2, it’s reasonable to assume the budget has grown accordingly, though Netflix has kept the actual number close to the chest.
Why The Gentlemen: Season 1 Became a Hit
The numbers back up what critics sensed early on: this show found an audience fast. The Gentlemen debuted at No. 1 on Netflix’s global chart in its first week with 12.2 million views, and went on to rack up more than 100 million views total, enough to land it among IMDb’s most popular shows even two years after its premiere. Critically, it settled into solidly positive territory, sitting at 75% with critics and a notably higher 84% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, a gap that tells its own story: this was a show critics respected but audiences genuinely loved.
Part of that comes down to a premise with real bite – the idea that Britain’s landed aristocracy and its criminal underworld aren’t as far apart as either would like to admit. Part of it is the cast: James doing his best work in years, Scodelario turning Susie into one of the more compelling crime bosses on television, and Giancarlo Esposito bringing the same coiled menace that made Gus Fring unforgettable to an entirely new character. And part of it is simply Ritchie’s voice translating better to a serialized format than many expected – the same stylish violence and quotable dialogue that defined Lock, Stock and Snatch, just given room to breathe across eight episodes instead of two hours.
What to Expect From The Gentlemen Season 2
Season 2 picks up roughly a year after Season 1’s finale. Eddie is no longer the hesitant duke trying to understand the business he’s inherited – he’s actively pushing to grow it, and the season’s central tension comes from Bobby Glass’s judgment starting to slip while he runs things remotely from prison. That instability forces Eddie and Susie into a decision: step in and take control themselves, or risk watching the entire operation collapse. Their answer takes the story out of England entirely, establishing a new foothold in Italy’s lakeside villa country – a significant expansion in both scope and location from Season 1’s more contained Halstead-estate setting.
All eight episodes will once again drop at once rather than weekly, continuing the binge-model Netflix used for Season 1. And in a rare vote of confidence, Netflix renewed The Gentlemen for a third season on August 24, 2026 – just days before Season 2 even premiered, with crew reportedly already close to starting production before the announcement went public. That renewal has also fueled persistent reports that Meghan Markle is in early talks for a role in Season 3, according to Deadline – talks that remain in the early stages, with nothing officially confirmed by Netflix.
Best Dialogues From The Gentlemen Season 1
Guy Ritchie shows built their reputation on dialogue as sharp as their violence, and Season 1 delivered plenty of lines worth remembering:
1. I didn’t ask for any of this. The title has no practical value. The business is broken.
2. There are holes in the roof, the staff are revolting, and you, brother, are a coke-sniffing cunt.
3. Allow me to introduce myself. I used to be in business with your father. I have certain interests I need to discuss with you.
4. Must have come as a shock, inheriting a house, title.
5. As the new landlord, you will receive a significant amount of money in return for letting us carry out our activities.
6. People either survive in the jungle or exist in the zoo.
7. I think you should back to your country house and wank off your spaniel.
8. I’m gonna remove their interest from this estate.
9. I didn’t create this problem. I’m trying to help you deal with it.
10. No one walks away. And it’s down to you to keep him under manners.
11. These are serious people. Although they appear to be house-trained, don’t be deceived by the facade.
12. So in order to stop ourselves being associated with criminals, we are going to become criminals?
13. We’re not criminals, Freddy.
14. Welcome to the jungle.
Susie Glass, on the British aristocracy: “Do you know what I love about the British aristocracy? They’re the original gangsters. The reason they own 75% of this country is because they stole it.”
Stanley Johnston, on the show’s central philosophy of power: “People either survive in the jungle or exist in the zoo. Few recognize the significance of the paradoxical reconciliation of the two.”
Eddie Horniman, reciting his family’s motto to Susie: “Non sine periculo” – Latin for “not without danger.” Two words that end up defining exactly how far Eddie is willing to go by the time the season ends.
Susie and Eddie, in one of the show’s sharpest back-and-forths: Susie: “Know what the fundamental challenge with the human condition is?” Eddie: “No. But filling in the blanks, is it too much dog and not enough man?” Susie: “Too much untrained dog. And we are in the dog training business.”
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Best Dialogues and Quotes From The Gentlemen Season 2
1. Four hundred years ago, this estate spread out as far as the eye could see. I want it all back.
2. I’m being lubed in the hope that I might support your efforts to decriminalize marijuana.
3. Nobody knows the business better than we do.
4. – The Duke, he’s evolving.
– What if he’s evolving into something volatile?
– We need him, and he needs us.
5. You are destined to rule. Forge your own path. Move away from Bobby Glass.
6. It’s about having our cake and eating it.
7. What’s the matter? Cat got your bollocks?
8. – Can I remind you of your position in the hierarchy?
– I’m a captain. I’m used to giving orders.
9. You wanna be careful with your “be careful”s, Susan.
10. – This fu-king snake!
– Don’t you fu-king talk to me like that!
11. – I feel an erection coming on.
– That’s the appropriate response, sir.
12. This journey seems to be coming at quite a cost.
13. It all feels just within reach.
14. For a creature reared in the zoo, he’s certainly become accomplished at hunting in the jungle.
15. There’s no need to panic. We’re still aristocrats. Good grief.
It’s the kind of exchange that captures exactly what made these two characters work as a pair – Eddie fumbling toward cleverness, Susie already three steps ahead of him.
The Gentlemen Season 2 premieres on Netflix on September 3, 2026.
