Sumith Prasad
Netflix’s action crime series ‘The Gentlemen’ is the successor of the 2019 movie of the same name, both created by Guy Ritchie. The film stars Matthew McConaughey as Michael “Mickey” Pearson, the kingpin who controls the marijuana trade on and around the English soil. Mickey is joined by his right-hand man Raymond Smith, an integral character Charlie Hunnam portrays in the movie. When Mickey gets entangled in a web of conflicts, he receives help from Colin Farrell’s “Coach.” Mickey, Raymond, and Coach are the significant characters in the film but do they appear in the Netflix crime drama?
The Cast of The Gentlemen
Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, and Colin Farrell do not appear in Netflix’s ‘The Gentlemen’ series. In fact, none of the major cast members of the 2019 movie are in the 2024 crime drama. Ritchie conceived the show to expand on the themes and the world he introduced in the film. “I felt within ‘The Gentlemen’ I could have at least continued with another film. I’ve got an inexhaustible creative reservoir of different ideas I’ve come up with in the past. […] The ability to be able to extend storylines has been tremendously liberating,” the filmmaker told Netflix. However, it doesn’t mean that the movie’s characters are in the series.
Ritchie explores the clash between the English underworld and aristocracy with a fresh set of characters who are placed in an entirely different story. The viewers do not even need to watch the film to follow the saga of Eddie Horniman and Susie Glass’ strange partnership. Due to the same reason, Theo James, the headliner of the series, was not intimidated to follow in the footsteps of McConaughey, an Academy Award-winning actor. “This is a very different world and I was glad for that. I think people assume it is a continuation of the movie, but it’s set in a world of ‘The Gentlemen’ but it is a completely different story, completely different characters and I felt like it was different enough,” James told PA.
Even though McConaughey does not appear in the series, traces of his character Mickey Pearson can be seen in Ray Winstone’s Bobby Glass. Like Mickey, Bobby is someone who tries to remain the king of the jungle by ruling the marijuana trade in the country. Both of them have developed unholy alliances and partnerships with the “land-rich cash-poor” aristocrats to build their cannabis empires. Mickey and Bobby’s relationships with the aristocrats extend beyond their business affairs as they help the latter group when they get involved in varying troubles. Both Mickey and Bobby deal with the threat of outsiders who seek vicious and condemnable ways to acquire their empires, Matthew Berger in the film and Stanley Johnston in the show to be specific.
Traces of Farrell’s Coach can be seen in Laurence O’Fuarain’s JP. Both Coach and JP are in no way connected to the world of marijuana trafficking in the film and series respectively. However, when their people get involved with the kingpins, they get dragged into the business. Coach and JP then help Mickey and Bobby respectively to resolve a few of their headaches. Both of them have an army of their own: the rappers who steal Mickey’s marijuana in Coach’s case and the gang who steals the generators from the Glasses’ farm as far as JP is concerned.
Through these similarities that exist between the characters, the show pays homage to its source material commendably. That’s also why the series may not be a disappointing experience for the admirers of the 2019 film.
Read More: The Gentlemen: Is Geoff Charly’s Father? How Are They Related?
