“Eddie Bites Off More Than He Can Chew Ultimately, and He Has to Deal With the Ramifications of That”: Theo James Talks The Gentlemen S2 and Restaurant Red Flags

Fresh from hitting up Centre Court at Wimbledon, the actor caught up with Man About Town before switching on the out-of-office toggle. 

The start of July wasn’t exactly a period of R&R for British actor Theo James. Jetting into Italy for Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda Show in Taormina, straight after watching Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev face-off at the Men’s Singles Final at Wimbledon, courtesy of his continued partnership with the event's official vehicle partner Range Rover, are pretty hefty extra-curriculars for the thespian. But before all of that, the highly-anticipated trailer for Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen Season 2 was unveiled to the world. 

Two years since the release of the first series dropped on Netflix, James is slipping back into the three-piece tweed suits, unlocking the Range Rover Sport and slapping the gold Patek Philippe Nautilus back on his wrist for another turn as weed-slinging posho Eddie Horniman. Season 1 finished with Eddie going into business with Susie Glass (played by Kaia Scodelario) and her father Bobbie (Ray Winstone), despite initial efforts to get their hash-harbouring operations off his estate. Hey, the aristocrat-to-drugs kingpin pipeline makes for a spicy watch. But Season 2 won’t be easy going, either. In fact, it might take things even further. 

“I was very keen that if we're going to continue the story, we had to – I know this sounds obvious – evolve it because the first season deals with elements of class and moral ambiguity and all those things, but it was also heavy [on the] entertainment. But to replicate that and do the same thing…, I think the audience is smart and they expect more,” says James, dialling in an hour before catching another flight, this time for a family holiday. “So the second season, we all – Guy [Ritchie] and the writers included – made a concerted effort to broaden the world and hopefully deepen and darken it, to take the characters to darker and more complicated places while retaining the fun elements.”

Season 2 sees Eddie, Susie, and the gang head to Italy to expand the operation. And while James remains tight-lipped about the ins and outs (although boat loads of class-crossing Guy Ritchie-isms, witty irreverence and pacey, full-throttle editing are guaranteed) he reveals the ordeal isn’t exactly smooth sailing. “Eddie bites off more than he can chew ultimately, and he has to deal with the ramifications of that, which are deep and terribly dark in the most [The] Gentlemen-ly way,” he says. To be fair, uncapped ambition combined with the guts to take on the Mafia rarely comes without turbulence. 

But how does it feel to be back? Tiring, sure. But a welcome return, too. “It's an intense show to do because I'm in it a lot, so is Kaya. And Guy’s way of working is good for comedy and coming up with things on the fly, but things are changing all the time. So you've really got to have your wits about you. So it's intense, but good to come back because there's a bunch of nice people, which is lucky. And we got to spend a month in Northern Italy drinking heavily.” 

Joining returning cast members Joely Richardson, Michael Vu, Harry Goodwins, and Daniel Ings, Ruby Sear, and Ray Winstone, are newcomers Hugh Bonneville, Maya Jama, Benedetta Porcaroli, Michele Morrone, Sergio Castellito, Tyler Conti, and Amra Mallassi. The cast quickly became close, thanks in part to filming on Guy Ritchie’s estate, and off-screen antics that included, as James put it,  “300 English people in Lake Maggiore drinking too many negronis.” Suffice to say, by the time filming wrapped, everyone knew each other rather well. 

Fresh from filming Season 2, and still full from slow-cooked meats and creamy rices, James wasn’t done with the whole Italian thing. In May this year, he opened the doors to his latest gastronomic venture, Ornella, in London Fields. It’s his second Italian food restaurant in the British Capital following Lupa, which he launched last year alongside business partners Ed Templeton and Naz Hassan.

“Ornella was an opportunity that was weirdly symbiotic because we heard about the premises, in London Fields, a day after I got back from being in northern Italy for a month,” says James. “So I'd been eating the food and you know with work with The Gentlemen, and I came back and said, ‘Oh, this place is coming up. We should look into it.’” Unlike Lupa that dishes up Roman comfort food, Ornella goes all in on Milanese small plates, meats and pasta – a 48-seater antidote to overly trendy restaurants “that are so hipster that they don’t give a fuck,” he says. (In case you were wondering, his dream dinner guest to eat Italian food with is Ukrainian Heavyweight boxer Oleksandr Usyk). 

James’ involvement in these restaurants goes beyond a big name to get bums on seats. He’s quick to reveal that he changed the toilet seat in Lupa a week ago as well as how swift he endeavours to change the song on the playlist if he doesn’t like it. But his ultimate red flag is “overly terse staff trying to be trendy and too much overhead lighting. That’s because I’m like a vampire so I’m burning my skin,” he says.

Naturally, given that The Gentlemen S2 is soon to land on our screens, the topic of conversation returns to the series – albeit framed through food. If you were wondering what Eddie Horniman is eating if he winds up at Ornella, here’s your answer: “He would be ordering the fig leaf martini, strong, quite classy, and he'd be probably having the schnitzel because he's a ravenous animal and potentially a dickhead. He would be eating alone. I feel like that's how I picture him. Which is the opposite of me because I can't. I'm very bad at eating alone,” says James. 

As for the rest of Eddie’s exploits, we’ll have to wait until September 3 2026, when the second season of The Gentlemen lands on Netflix.