Venom Star’s Hit Paramount+ Crime Series Renewed for Season 2

Venom star Tom Hardy is headed back to Mobland. Paramount+ renewed the show, which Hardy also produces, for a second season. Variety first broke the news about the renewal. Mobland premiered in March of this year and was purportedly a hit from the get-go. Pitched as a British version of the hit show Ray Donovan, Mobland follows the notorious Harrigans, a London crime family that uses their loyal fixer, Harry Da Souza (Hardy), to consolidate and maintain power as they face off against other criminal entities and the authorities. The renewal comes hot on the heels of Mobland‘s explosive Season 1 finale, which took place earlier this month.

According to the most recent Nielsen data, Mobland spent at least six weeks on their Top 10 Original Series chart. Paramount claims Mobland‘s first episode drew 26 million viewers since its debut, and boasts that the series is only second to Taylor Sheridan’s Landman as their top-performing original series on Paramount+ of all time.

Jez Butterworth (Edge of Tomorrow) is one of Mobland‘s co-creators. Guy Ritchie, known for British crime dramas, directs and executive produces. The cast includes Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren.

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Mobland‘s Renewal Gives Hardy More Opportunity to Do What He Does Best

Tom Hardy is certainly no stranger to the crime genre. He’s made his career playing gritty, grizzled gangsters on the small screen in Taboo and Peaky Blinders, and on the big screen in Bronson, The Drop, and as twin crime bosses, the Krays, in 2015’s Legend. For a lesser actor, the role of Harry Da Souza would have come across as old hat and derivative. However, the Oscar-nominated, and perhaps soon to be Emmy-nominated, Hardy brings Da Souza to life by brilliantly contrasting his vocation with a restraint and dry humor just as lethal as his fists. Da Souza is a fresh and endlessly fascinating character to watch because a masterful Hardy can play the character in a way where we can always see the brutality simmering under the surface.

Given that Hardy’s performance in the Venom franchise is so larger-than-life that it borders on camp, it’s no wonder viewers have embraced Mobland. The series not only gives Hardy a chance to fully show us what he’s truly capable of and what audiences originally embraced him for, but his role as executive producer also allows him more leadership and ownership over the property and Da Souza. In addition to Brosnan and Mirren playing MobLand‘s reigning monarchs, the Harrigans, the show also stars Paddy Considine, Joanne Froggatt, Lara Pulver, Anson Boon, Mandeep Dhillon, Jasmine Jobson, Geoff Bell, Daniel Betts, Lisa Dwan, and Emily Barber.

Mobland Season 1 is now streaming on Paramount+.