Fightland: 50 Cent's British Boxing Drama Packs Some Power — The Cast Takes Us Inside Starz's London Crime Thriller

This post contains spoilers from the premiere of "Fightland." Proceed accordingly.

In the first few minutes of Starz's "Fightland," which premieres today, Maduka "Duke" Kilroy achieves his greatest dream: with an uppercut that lays his opponent flat, the boxer secures the role of heavyweight champion of the world.

"Duke's worked his whole life to achieve that," Howard Charles ("Whitstable Pearl"), who plays the fighter, tells me in the video above. "You become the heavyweight champ, you're the baddest man on the planet. So yeah, Duke reaches the mountaintop, the summit, the zenith of his attainment. Then, of course, what follows is the tragedy of losing everything."

In quick succession, we learn that Duke is in love with Joy (played by Deborah Ayorinde, "Them"), but Joy is married to Duke's very powerful boss, a promoter named Kingsley Marshall (Nicholas Pinnock, "For Life"). Kingsley is a brutal operator — he has his men beat a reporter who dares ask a question about his crime ties — but Duke is undeterred: He dreams that he and Joy will run away and start a new life together the next day.

Then Howard goes to meet his brother, Calvin (Jurell Carter, "Emmerdale Farm") in a hotel parking garage, and Duke's fate massively, bloodily changes. He's attacked by a pair of men who hold him down and take a hammer to his hand. When Calvin shows up and tries to intervene, one of the men stick the sharp back side of the hammer's head into Cal's neck. He dies nearly instantly.

Mad with grief, Duke sees one of the attackers running away and catches him, pummeling him until the police pull him off. He winds up in prison for years — before the opening credits even roll!

"Everything you care about, everything that you love, on the same night that you lift the title, everything's taken away from you," Charles says, setting up what's to come in the drama from "Power" executive producer Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. "Snatched away from you."

Eight years later, Howard is out of jail. He knows that Kingsley, who found out about him and Joy, was behind the mangling of his hand and inadvertently caused Calvin's death. But Kingsley also is missing; his children Cece (Anita-Joy Uwajeh, "Vampire Academy") and Zeek (Charles Babalola, "Black Mirror") are running the family business in their father's stead.

These developments only slightly put a kink in Duke's revenge plan, an agenda that's aided and forwarded by one of his prison acquaintances. First, Duke gets a job working for the Marshalls at their gym — though Cece's not a fan. Next, he helps steal Marshall drugs and plant them in a rival's property, in order to incite chaos and potentially force Kingsley out of hiding.

But what about Joy? She and Duke share a few moments, but she's very cautious, especially because she now has a young son. And maybe she's right to be wary: Near the end of the hour, when one of the Marshalls' young boxers trails Duke to where he's plotting the Marshall drug operation's downfall, the kid pulls a gun on the former heavyweight champ. Duke eventually gets the upper hand and kills him... right as Duke's childhood friend/former cornerman Jay (Tyler Conti, "Hollyoaks") shows up and witnesses what's happened.

And that's just the beginning! Press PLAY on the video above to hear cast members Howard Charles, Nicholas Pinnock, Anita-Joy Uwajeh, Charles Babalola, Tyler Conti, and Tahirah Sharif (who plays ring girl Kim) — as well as stunt coordinator Crispin Layfield — set up what we'll see in the first season of "Fightland." Then grade the premiere via the poll below, and hit the comments with all of your thoughts about the show!