Do You Need To Watch The Gentlemen Movie Before The Netflix Series?

Season 2 of Netflix's "The Gentlemen" is upon us, once again calling attention to Guy Ritchie's 2019 movie of the same name. Some might wonder whether the film is required viewing before diving into Season 1, given that Ritchie created "The Gentlemen" series as a spin-off of his earlier work. 

However, it is not necessary to watch 2019's "The Gentlemen" in order to understand the Netflix show. While the two belong to the same universe and share a similar plot, they follow entirely different sets of characters. The series centers on Eddie Horniman (Theo James), a former British military officer who inherits his wealthy family's marijuana empire in the wake of his father's sudden death. Ritchie's "The Gentlemen" film instead focuses on Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), an American who started his own lucrative marijuana business while attending university in the United Kingdom and later looks to sell his empire to a new proprietor. 

Both the gangster-centric TV show and its film predecessor surround their main characters with many unique supporting personalities. In the series, there are Eddie's shrewd business partner, Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario), and erratic older brother, Freddy Horniman (Daniel Ings), while the movie has Mickey's businesswoman wife, Rosalind Pearson (Michelle Dockery), and trusted enforcer, Raymond Smith (Charlie Hunnam).

The clear differences between Guy Ritchie's "The Gentlemen" Netflix series and movie don't take away from their shared dark comedy elements and over-the-top violence typical of the writer-director's projects. As of Season 2 of the show, no characters or actors from the film have made the jump to the small screen. The self-contained nature of each narrative has enabled Ritchie to flesh out his cutthroat world of mobsters and aristocratic drug lords set in modern-day Britain.

When "The Gentlemen" Season 1 premiered in 2024, Ritchie told Netflix why he decided to expand the world of his movie with a TV show. "I felt as though in 'The Gentlemen' I could have continued with at least another film," he explained. "I've got an inexhaustible creative reservoir of different ideas I've come up with in the past. ... The ability to be able to extend storylines has been tremendously liberating."

Netflix recently renewed "The Gentlemen" for Season 3, meaning fans of the series can expect another explosive chapter of Eddie's story. Although seeing Ritchie's 2019 crime comedy isn't essential to enjoying the show, Netflix subscribers can currently stream both.