Guy Ritchie Series Lands Premiere Date & Title: 'MobLand'

Since the success of Guy Ritchie's Netflix series The Gentlemen, the action-focused director has been all over the news, taking on everything from a Gentlemen sequel series to a spinoff movie Wife & Dog to a new Young Sherlock. However, throughout the fall of 2024, we kept hearing about various untitled projects: a possible film starring British acting royalty Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan, a possible Ray Donovan spinoff at Showtime, and a prestige series involving Tom Hardy for Showtime and Paramount+. It wasn't until December 2024 that things fell into place; they were all the same project: The Ray Donovan spinoff, once called The Donovans, had become The Associate, cast Hardy, dumped the name and brought aboard Mirren and Brosnan. 

The series is no longer directly about the Donovan clan, but is still a London-set series about two families warring over their criminal enterprise. It has also finally gained an official title, a release date, and a new home. Entitled MobLand, the series' cast is jam-packed with British favorites, but it's no longer going to Showtime. Instead, the prestige series will debut on Paramount+ in a bid to keep the audience that signed up to watch Season 2 of the streaming service's other series starring Mirren, 1923.

Everything about this announcement, from the last-minute transfer from Showtime (or "Showtime with Paramount+" — no, I have no idea what the difference is, probably the pricetag) to straight up being on Paramount+ is yet another reminder of why this company, which switched from calling itself Viacom-CBS to "Paramount" only a couple of years ago, is in the process of being sold to the highest bidder. (That would be Skydance, in a reverse deal allowing the new owners to keep the century-old Paramount name.) 

Here, we have a show directed by one of the hottest names in filmmaking, starring three of the most famous British actors working today, in a series that almost certainly cost lavish amounts of money to make ....and it's arriving in less than 30 days with no prior marketing to speak of, no trailer, and no promotional images. The overwhelming number of choices makes discoverability difficult for new shows, and then there's this. Heck, Paramount didn't even bother to send cast headshots for entertainment journalists to use. (What, you think I wanted to use an image from The Thursday Murder Club?) If this were 2005, dropping a show like this with 30 days notice would be a Grand Statement, an Attention Grabber, and become the thing everyone is talking about. In 2025, it's practically malpractice.

(And Paramount's current three co-CEOs wonder why the company is failing.)

(Yes, I went with a trailer from Tom Hardy's upcoming Netflix film, 'Havoc.' If I'm using another company's stuff to promote a Paramount+ show, I might as well be consistent. By the way, 'Havoc' releases April 25, 2025, nearly a month after MobLand. 'The Thursday Murder Club' won't be out until Fall 2025.)

However, with a cast like this and the Guy Ritchie name, people are bound to stream it, right? That worked so well for Paramount+'s The Gold that new distributor PBS plans to relaunch the series with Season 1 as if the show never aired in the U.S. before it debuts Season 2. (If a show streams on a service no one subscribes to, did it really air in that country? Discuss.)

Hilariously, somehow the series synopsis got even shorter and less informative now that there's a title and a release date.

As the head of an organized crime family, MobLand centers around Brosnan’s character who is fighting for power within a global crime syndicate.

Hardy, Brosnan and Mirren will be joined by a high-powered ensemble, who we hope got paid handsomely up front for this. They include Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey), Paddy Considine (House of the Dragon), Lara Pulver (Sherlock), Anson Boon (Pistol)), Jasmine Jobson (Top Boy), Geoff Bell (His Dark Materials), Mandeep Dhillon (The Good Karma Hospital), Daniel Betts (After the Flood), Lisa Dwan (Bloodlands), and Emily Barber (Industry).

Ronan Bennett (Day of the Jackal) penned all episodes, with Ritchie helming all installments. Both serve as executive producers along with Hardy; the rest of the executive team includes Keith Cox, Nina L. Diaz, David C. Glasser, Jez Butterworth, Kris Thykier, Ivan Atkinson, Hardy, Dean Baker, Ron Burkle, David Hutkin, and Bob Yari.

MobLand will premiere on Paramount+ on Sunday, March 30, 2025. No, the press release did not bother to mention if that's one episode with the show streaming weekly, multiple episodes on premiere day with one a week to follow, or all episodes at once. 

Skydance expects to close on the Paramount deal and take ownership of the company by the end of June 2025. Maybe the new ownership can follow PBS's example and relaunch the show in two years with an actual marketing plan, as if it were brand new.