Theo James to star in Netflix version of Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen

Guy Ritchie’s 2019 action-comedy The Gentlemen was basically the definitive Guy Ritchie movie, with a bunch of famous people doing wacky/brutal criminal stuff while being (mostly) very Bri’ish and making quips and wearing suits. It was the kind of movie that, had it gotten better reviews, could be accurately described as “roit propah.” But it was reasonably fun anyway, and it hinted at an overly complex universe of high-level British pot dealers and social media clout-seeking criminal kids—like John Wick but everyone is kind of annoying and they say boot and lorry and… Tesco. They’re British, you get it.

So it actually makes a roit propah bit of sense that Netflix is spinning out The Gentlemen into a TV show, with Deadline saying that Theo James from The White Lotus and the Divergent movies will be starring as Eddie Halstead, a man who inherits his father’s estate and realizes it’s actually part of a “weed empire owned by the legendary Mickey Pearson.” Mickey Pearson is the guy Matthew McConaughey played in the movie (we said they were mostly very British, and he did play an American), but the Deadline story doesn’t say if he’ll be in it or if he’ll be recast or something.

The series will also be called The Gentlemen, so it might actually just be a reboot of the concept of the movie, but Ritchie is on board as an executive producer, wrote the pilot script with Matthew Read, and will also direct the first two episodes. So if you’re concerned about retaining the spirit of the original film, Ritchie will probably make sure that happens—since, again, the original was such a Guy Ritchie movie that you could’ve called it Guy Ritchie Movie and nobody would’ve questioned it.