Gangs of London is an explosive crime drama that blew up the streets of the capital when season one landed in 2020. Now the whole of season two is with us, available to stream in full on Sky Atlantic, Now and AMC+, and no expense is spared on the violence and the visuals as well as the emotional impact.
Not only that but a season three has been greenlit too. The worst thing about it? You’re going to have to wait until next year at the earliest to get your teeth into more Gangs.
Great news, then, that season two lead director Corin Hardy along with writer Rowan Athale and illustrator Ferenc Nothof have created a graphic novel which fill in some of the gaps between seasons one and two.
A Gangs of London Story: Ghosts takes place in the time after Elliot has become a hitman for hire for the investors before we find him in Istanbul at the start of season two. If you remember, he made a deal with the investors to take out Sean Wallace and keep Alex Dumani in play in exchange for his own freedom and that of Shannon Dumani and her son Danny. But with his dad held in secret by the investors, and Elliot wanted by the police he betrayed, he’s left with little choice (here’s a full recap of season one).
Elliot has gone from a highly trained, honest, undercover cop cover to a contract killer. But what does that do to a man?
The first of (hopefully) many graphic novels exploring the world of Gangs looks to answer this.
Hardy spoke with Den of Geek about why the graphic novel medium fit so well with this show.
“The title, Gangs of London, originated from a video game and whilst we didn’t choose to follow the specifics of that gaming iteration, when Gareth [Evans] created the show and I became involved, it was clear how the mix of genres, Asian martial arts, Western, Crime and Horror would play into the overall world of the show. And this also included a certain graphic novel quality in both the structure of the episodes themselves, the look and feel, as well as the explosive action-packed sensibilities. I had always felt that it could be a nice companion to the show if we could tell side stories in comic book form surrounding some of our main iconic characters and with the great work of my storyboard artist and illustrator Ferenc ‘Freddy’ Nothof, who has done so many storyboards for me and helped me map out some of the action sequences, in mind, it felt like an exciting idea to propose we explore.”
Hardy and Sope Dirisu, who plays Elliot, discussed Elliot’s backstory at length but Hardy says he was able to go into more specific detail and visualise Elliot’s journey in Ghosts, with the plus that, “in this format you don’t need to worry about how you’re going to pull off the international locations & multiple action sequences!”
Keep your eyes peeled for more Gangs graphic novels too. Further issues will expand other characters’ journeys.
“Sean, Lale, Luan – we’ll get to see some of what they were getting up to before and after we meet them in Season 2,” says Hardy. “I hope fans of the show will enjoy a little bit more Gangs in this comic book form.”
You can read the full comic Ghosts below.
All 8 episodes of Gangs of London: Series 2 are on Sky Atlantic and available to stream on NOW in the UK. They are available in the US on AMC+, AMC Network’s premium streaming bundle.