‘Gangs of London’ Star Sopé Dìrísù Previews Action-Packed Season 2

Gangs of London is nearly back for Season 2 and keeping things action-packed with Sopé Dìrísù‘s Elliot as he takes on new challenges in the latest chapter.

Set one year after the death of Sean Wallace (Joe Cole), the series picks up as a new and darker era of chaos pervades London’s streets. As maps are redrawn, new bonds are formed, and those still in play face what remains, Elliot finds himself enmeshed in assignments for the Investors. While Elliot gets in deeper with the Investors, there’s also a new big bad on the scene as Koba (Waleed Zuaiter) enters the mix, as teased in the exclusive clip, below.

Ahead of the premiere, Dìrísù previews what’s next for his ex-undercover cop as he does the bidding of the Investors, and faces the fallout of Season 1’s actions.

(Credit: Luke Varley/AMC/Sky UK)

Where is Elliot at when the season picks up? What can fans expect?

Sopé Dìrísù: In terms of the people that engaged with the first series, I think everything that they enjoyed about that is coming back. I don’t think we’ve shirked our responsibilities and we’ve given the people what they want. Corin [Hardy] has taken over as director this year and I think he’s really put his stamp on the series from the first frames. You can really see the direction that he wants to go in and it’s slightly different from Gareth [Evans] but it definitely fulfills a calling for violence. I am so proud of a lot of the dramatic sequences in this as well. There is something for everyone. We’re going to London. Yes, the calling card is the action sequences, and the explosions, and the bangs, but so many fireworks are going off between people and the relationships as well.

The last time viewers saw Eliot, he’d been recruited by the Investors. What can you say about his assignments from them in Season 2?

In the year that’s passed since the end of Season 1, Elliot believes that he’s gone deeper into the maelstrom in order to uncover or reveal who the Investors are and bring them down from the inside. But it’s really, really not worked out for him [Laughs]. He is in what I call the abyss. He doesn’t know what’s up from down and he has no way to get back to where he was because he is no longer in control of himself.

He’s been ordered to clean up some of the Investors’ messes, is a polite way of putting it. He’s tying up their loose ends as it were. And he thought that maybe the end would justify the means, but when you can’t see the end, you have to wonder how much more of the means can you do. I keep asking the question, how many bad things can you do before you’re just a bad person? No matter if you think that the end goal is good intentions. And I think that really plays quite heavily on him at the beginning of Series 2. Over the course of the second series, I think there are a lot of questionable actions that I was worried about at one point, are the audience still gonna come with him? Can he still be the protagonist? But I’ll leave that question for our audiences to decide.

You mentioned action before, what goes into preparing for those intense sequences the show’s become so well known for?

Thankfully because I’ve worked with a lot of the people already. It was quite a scene going back into the gym with them, working through the choreography. My stunt double was the same, Mens-Sana Tamakloe and he was the bridge between working in the first series and we had a new action director and stunt coordinator in the second series. But I think when they saw the first series, they knew what they were working with, everybody wants to go bigger and bolder. So I don’t think that despite changing personnel, we don’t lose any of the things that people enjoy the most about the series.

How is the trauma of Season 1 impacting Elliot as we kick off Season 2? Will it come back to haunt him?

Elliot is a very intentional character and he doesn’t make, everybody makes mistakes, but I think a lot of his decisions are considered. So I don’t think he regrets what happened with Sean at the end of the second or the first series but maybe he thought things would pan slightly differently.

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'Gangs of London' Begins Season 2 Production & Unveils New Cast Additions

When it comes to the world of Gangs of London, appearances can be deceptive. At least, that’s what Season 1 taught us. Is that the case in Season 2?

Yeah, I would just say that as with all things in life, make sure you’re making up your own opinions about the information that you’re given and hopefully you’re not surprised in a bad way. Hopefully, any surprise is a good surprise.

Gangs of London, Season 2 Premiere, Thursday, November 17, AMC+