‘The Gentlemen’ Season 2 Producers Reveal How They Keep Topping Themselves on Murder

Guy Ritchie has built a career turning British criminal underworlds into stylish spectacle, and his Netflix series has proven that formula translates just as well to television as it does to film. Since ‘The Gentlemen‘ first introduced audiences to Theo James’s reluctant crime lord Eddie Horniman, the show has carved out a distinct identity by mixing aristocratic charm with brutal, campy violence.

That balancing act only gets trickier as the story expands. Season 2 sends Eddie and Kaya Scodelario’s Susie Glass beyond the English countryside and into new territory entirely, raising the stakes both narratively and in terms of tone.

Now, with the new season streaming on Netflix, the show’s producers are opening up about exactly how they keep pushing that tonal tightrope without losing what makes the series work. “We are always looking for new ways to murder people,” writer and executive producer Matthew Read told Variety, capturing the show’s unusual blend of humor and horror in a single line.

That mindset extends far beyond just body count. Season 2 takes Eddie and Susie’s operation international, expanding onto what Read describes as the Mafia’s home turf in Italy. “Italy felt like a very logical place in terms of the fame of the Mafia, but also the glamor,” Read explained to Variety, pointing to the show’s signature blend of visual opulence and criminal menace as the reasoning behind the new setting.

Striking that balance isn’t something Read takes lightly, and it’s clearly a conversation he has constantly with Ritchie throughout the writing process. Read has described their guiding philosophy as aiming for “reality plus 7%,” a principle meant to keep the show heightened without tipping into total absurdity, though he admits that with new elements like a mythical Slavic figure entering the story this season, that percentage might be creeping closer to eight.

Miramax CEO and executive producer Jonathan Glickman echoed that same emphasis on grounding the spectacle in genuine stakes. He’s teased that Season 2 delivers even bigger action, specifically pointing to one episode he describes as wall-to-wall, but stressed that none of it works without real emotional investment in the characters caught in the middle of it.

Much of that emotional throughline centers on Eddie and Susie’s evolving dynamic, which oscillates between business partnership and something more complicated as the season progresses. Glickman has framed that relationship as the anchor that makes the show’s escalating chaos actually land with audiences, rather than becoming empty spectacle.

Beyond the writing, the production side has leaned hard into visual upgrade this season. Costume designer Loulou Bontempts has described giving both leads a wardrobe glow-up now that their criminal enterprise is generating serious money, complete with sharper tailoring for Eddie and a Birkin bag for Susie.

Production designer Martyn John has also revealed some of the scrappier realities behind the show’s polished look, including how the crew built an entire tiger enclosure using a steel gazebo purchased on eBay for £20,000. Despite the international setting, budget constraints meant that particular sequence was actually filmed in a UK garden dressed up with Italianate sculptures rather than shot on location.

That mix of genuine craftsmanship and resourceful problem-solving seems to define the show’s whole approach. Season 2 has already secured a Season 3 renewal, suggesting Netflix sees plenty of runway left in Eddie and Susie’s expanding criminal empire.

With the producers openly embracing their darkly comic sensibility while still chasing bigger action and higher stakes, ‘The Gentlemen’ seems determined to keep finding fresh, inventive ways to shock its audience without losing sight of the characters at its core.

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