Stephen Graham gets bloody, vicious in A Thousand Blows teaser

Let’s just go ahead and call it Stephen Week. Or Steven Week. Whichever you prefer. The point is, it’s a great week for fans of the collaborative relationship between Steven Knight and Stephen Graham. Yesterday, it was reported that Stephen Graham will appear in the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie. (Graham played union convenor Hayden Stagg in the series.) Today, we get a new teaser for the Stev/phens’ next project, A Thousand Blows, coming to Hulu in 2025. 

There still isn’t a solid release date for this show, but allow the Thousand Blows teaser to drum up some anticipation nevertheless. The series follows Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby), who comes from Jamaica and gets “drawn into the criminal underbelly” of London’s East End in a post-industrial revolution England. Graham plays Sugar Goodson, a veteran boxer who forms “an intense rivalry” with Hezekiah “that spills out way beyond the ring.” 

The Thousand Blows teaser is appropriately vicious and bloody as the two men face off in the boxing ring. As he adjusts to his new environment, Hezekiah finds an unlikely English guide in Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), the leader of the notorious all-female gang The Forty Elephants. “You are in London. This city makes only one promise: that it will kill you the first chance it gets,” she warns him. But Hezekiah has “tasted death,” he says, and “Life is much sweeter.” 

Graham also serves as an executive producer on the show alongside Knight, who is the lead writer. Per a press release from Hulu, other writers on the show include Ameir Brown, Insook Chappell, Harlan Davies, and Yasmin Joseph. The ensemble cast also features Francis Lovehall, Jason Tobin, James Nelson-Joyce, Hannah Walters, Darci Shaw, Nadia Albina, Morgan Hilaire, Jemma Carlton, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Susan Lynch, Daniel Mays, Adam Nagaitis, Gary Lewis, Tom Davis, and Robert Glenister. The series is set to have its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on Friday.