Few shows on streaming television right now arrive carrying this much offscreen baggage.
Paramount+ released the first teaser trailer for the second season of MobLand on July 9, confirming a September 18 global premiere and offering a fresh look at Tom Hardy's return as fixer Harry Da Souza. Hardy returns alongside Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren for the 10-episode run.
The footage opens with a line that feels almost too on the nose. "This hasn't exactly been a wonderful 24 hours for me, yeah?" Da Souza says at the start of the trailer. That opening mirrors the real-world drama surrounding the series since late May, when news broke that Hardy would reportedly not return for a third season.
Here's what happened. Hardy completed filming on the second season, but not without issues. Friction between him and showrunner Jez Butterworth reportedly boiled over, with Hardy's chronic lateness to set believed to be one of the points of contention. THR reported that Hardy at times refused to leave his trailer. "He kept the cast waiting, [which is] a power play," a source told the outlet.
Butterworth's absence on set compounded the problem. "Often his ideas are very sound," a source told Variety about Hardy. "And he wants them taken seriously. Jez kind of hasn't got the time to deal with those notes, so it becomes problematic." A second source was blunter: "I think Jez is basically spread too thin. He's taken on too many jobs." Butterworth is also behind The Agency on Paramount+ and has been writing Sam Mendes' upcoming Beatles biopics.
For a few weeks, it looked genuinely over. Hardy appeared to be on his way out after the fallout with Butterworth escalated to a point where the two could no longer work together. Then, Mirren publicly backed Hardy on social media. At the Taormina Film Festival, she was asked if she'd work with him again. "Absolutely. In a fucking heartbeat," she said. "I love Tom, I think he's the most amazing actor."
That support helped turn things around. A pivotal meeting in London between Hardy, Butterworth, and executive producer David Glasser went extremely well and led to an agreement to continue working together. Executive producer Guy Ritchie also played an important role in the reconciliation.
So Hardy is back. Not just for the second season, which was already in the can, but for a likely third. A formal Season 3 renewal has not been announced, with production expected to resume later this year if it happens. A writers' room is already at work.
None of this drama seems to have touched what ended up on screen. The trailer leans into chaos, with Brosnan's Conrad Harrigan walking brazenly into a firefight. "We are the Harrigans!" he shouts while shooting indiscriminately. "Don't know the name? Then Google us." The Prodigy's Firestarter scores the whole sequence.
MobLand was created by Ronan Bennett, the writer behind Top Boy and The Day of the Jackal. Ritchie's involvement marks his first TV series for the streamer, and the show spent five consecutive weeks in Nielsen's Top 10 SVOD Original Series rankings. According to Paramount+, it was viewed 26 million times globally in the 70 days following its March 2025 premiere. That made it the platform's second most-watched original, trailing only Taylor Sheridan's Landman.
Season one wasn't without its critics. Many viewers complained about Brosnan and Mirren's Irish accents and the show's writing in its later episodes. Still, the numbers were impossible to ignore.
Johnny Flynn and Ophelia Lovibond join the cast as new series regulars for the second season, though details about their roles remain under wraps. Episodes will release weekly on Fridays following the premiere. Returning ensemble members include Paddy Considine, Joanne Froggatt, Anson Boon, Jasmine Jobson, and Mandeep Dhillon.
The series was originally intended as a prequel to Ray Donovan. In February 2024, Paramount+ released a premise under the working title The Donovans. What it became is something more volatile. A show whose real offscreen tension now feeds directly into its mythology.
Whether that energy sharpens or shadows the second season remains to be seen. September 18 is five weeks out.
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