Even though Power’s original run has been over for years, the show’s British equivalent hits screens this week and looks set to hit them hard. Debuting in 2014 on Starz, Power was a bruising, brutal gangster epic from producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. One of the most successful Starz shows of all time, Power followed the rise and fall of Omari Hardwick’s unstoppable drug kingpin Ghost.
Followed by the successful spinoffs Power Book II: Ghost, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, and Power Book IV: Force, Power swiftly became one of the most popular gangster shows in cable TV history. While its critical reputation could never quite compare to genre classics like The Sopranos and The Wire, Power was nonetheless a major critical hit that won Outstanding Drama Series at the 50th NAACP Image Awards in 2019 and Outstanding Drama Series in 2021 for its first spinoff, Power Book II: Ghost.
There are a pair of upcoming Power spinoffs, Power: Origins and Power: Legacy, currently in production, but fans of the show need not wait that long for the next unofficial addition to the franchise. The British boxing drama Fightland, starring Howard Charles and Nicholas Pinnock, promises to take the Starz franchise’s atmospheric blend of drama and crime thrills to the other side of the Atlantic. The story of a disgraced boxer getting revenge on a mob family who betrayed him, Fightland looks like a thrill ride worthy of the Power franchise.
Fightland Is A Spiritual Continuation Of The Power Franchise
Executive produced by 50 Cent, Fightland follows Charles’s formerly imprisoned boxing champion Maduka “Duke” Kilroy as he returns to London with vengeance on his mind. Kilroy believes he was set up by a prominent crime dynasty, and he plans to get revenge on the clan, but things may not be as simple as they seem in this crime drama. Like the fellow UK crime series Mobland, Fightland promises to put its bruiser protagonist through endless double crosses before its thrilling conclusion.
Fightland is the latest in a string of violent crime dramas from the UK, a trend that began as far back as 2011’s masterful Top Boy and continued with Mobland, Gangs of London, and Guy Ritchie’s movie spinoff series, The Gentlemen. While the Peaky Blinders franchise could be considered part of this trend, the period setting of that hit means it has more in common with creator Steven Knight’s other historical dramas, like Taboo and House of Guinness, than the Power shows.
In contrast, Fightland could be a straightforward addition to the Power mythos if it weren’t for its UK setting. The show’s marketing materials promise the same mix of dark humor, character drama, unpredictable mob power struggles, and brutal violence that made the Starz series and its many spinoffs such a massive hit with audiences. Of course, this combination also calls to mind a certain British super producer.
Fightland Might Be The Best English Gangster Show Guy Ritchie Didn’t Make
While he might be busy with the relatively staid period drama Young Sherlock in 2026, Guy Ritchie was once the leading voice of British gangster stories on the screen. His infamous one-two punch of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch saw the writer/director quickly establish himself as the UK’s answer to Quentin Tarantino back in the late ‘90s, while the subsequent movies RocknRolla and The Gentlemen proved he never lost his knack within the genre.
While not all of Guy Ritchie’s movies are gangster stories, he does produce both MobLand and The Gentlemen, making him a major player in the small-screen landscape of British crime drama. Thus, Fightland now needs to not only live up to the Power shows, but also beat impressive critically acclaimed hits like Gangs of London and Top Boy if the series hopes to become the best British mob show Ritchie didn’t make.
- Release Date
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July 31, 2026
- Showrunner
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Raphael Jackson Jr., Damione Macedon
- Directors
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Otto Bathurst, Tessa Hoffe, Colm McCarthy, Sebastian Thiel
- Writers
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Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan, Raphael Jackson Jr., Damione Macedon, Marlon Smith, Jessica Sinyard, Elliot Warren
Cast
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Howard Charles
Maduka ‘Duke’ Kilroy
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Nicholas Pinnock
Kingsley Marshall