Netflix has announced a streaming release date for The Gentlemen, Guy Ritchie's spinoff series from his film of the same name, and it's done so with a series of posters of the cast (see the X post below) showing so many blazers you'd think it was set in Savile Row.
Theo JamesGiancarlo EspositoKaya ScodelarioDaniel IngsVinnie JonesJoely RichardsonThe Gentlemen, a Guy Ritchie series, premieres March 7. pic.twitter.com/DpM91i1cwVFebruary 12, 2024
The show, which is set to premier on the best streaming service on March 7, is a new story but shares the same world as the movie, and like the original film's plot, it's an action comedy putting clueless newbies against seasoned tough guys.
The show focuses on Theo James, played by The White Lotus' Eddie Horniman, who is the estranged son of an English aristocrat. When his dad dies he inherits the estate, oblivious to the fact that it's the front for a massive drugs empire – a fact that he soon discovers. Despite not being a criminal, Theo needs to become one fast or lose his entire estate.
"Crime meets caviar" in Guy Ritchie's action comedy
Ritchie has assembled an interesting cast here, including Hollywood hard man Vinnie Jones, Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito and beloved actor Joely Richardson. And of course, Ray Winstone's in it too. He plays Bobby Glass, the career criminal whose cannabis empire Theo has unwittingly inherited.
Reviews aren't in for the TV show just yet, but the 2019 film that inspired it has had generally good reviews. The Gentlemen was widely reviewed as an entertaining crime caper that tried but didn't quite manage to take a fresh approach to well-worn gangster movie tropes. It was effectively a cheeseburger of a film: tasty enough at the time but not something that's going to stay long in the memory.
However, for some reviewers some bits did stick in the memory – and they weren't good bits. Several reviewers were distinctly unamused by some of the gangsters' jokes in the movie, which clearly set out to be position the film as proudly un-"politically correct" but came across as just enabling lazy racism, anti-semitism and homophobia. Both TIME magazine and Vulture felt that some of the gags, as TIME put it, left "a bitter aftertaste".
Hopefully that mistake hasn't been carried across to the TV show. because otherwise the consensus is very much that if you like this kind of thing, this is very much the kind of thing you'll like. The film didn't exactly break new ground but it was entertaining, thrilling and very funny in places. In short, it was a Guy Ritchie movie and delivered exactly what you'd expect. The TV show is likely to do the same.
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