When Steven Knight’s late-Victorian boxing drama A Thousand Blows first aired last year, the Disney Plus series proved to be a knockout success with fans.
Following the story of Jamaican boxer Hezekiah (Malachi Kirby) and his entanglement with the all-female gang ‘The Forty Elephants’ led by Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), the series offered a look into the brutal underworld of bare-knuckle boxing in London’s East End in the 1880s.
Featuring Adolescence’s Stephen Graham and This City is Ours star James Nelson-Joyce as well, the gritty six-part drama delivered one of the most shocking finales in recent years, and was hailed as being ‘better than Peaky Blinders’ at the time.
Picking up from where things were left, however, Knight has insisted that the characters are put through a much tougher time this time around.
Returning to London, season two sees Hezekiah struggle with the physical and emotional cost of his past, while the once-feared Sugar Goodson (Graham) spirals into self-destruction.
At the same time, Mary is determined to reclaim her position as leader of the Forty Elephants in Wapping and restore her criminal empire.
With escalating gang warfare, high-stakes heists and more brutal boxing matches, it’s no wonder that the series has been described as ‘reaching horrifying levels of darkness’.
An official synopsis of season two reads: ‘Mary is back to reassemble the Forty Elephants and reclaim her crown.
‘She sobers Sugar up, she has a use for him yet, and forms a reluctant alliance with Hezekiah to take down Indigo Jeremy once and for all. As always, Mary has a plan. And this time it’s riskier than ever.’
What did Metro think?
Our TV editor Sabrina Barr shared her thoughts…
The first season of A Thousand Blows was lightning in a bottle.
I had high expectations for a gritty drama written by Peaky Blinders mastermind Steven Knight, and boasting stellar talents including Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty.
It didn’t disappoint and left me yearning for more. Luckily, I didn’t have long to wait – just one year, in fact, as it’s finally back with season 2.
Considering the fact that this series has been built from the minds of the creatives behind Peaky Blinders and Adolescence, it feels like not much can really go wrong here.
After the first season aired, fans described the series as being ‘even better than Peaky Blinders’.
Taking to X, user dearmelanchxlyy hailed it as ‘the best British show I’ve ever seen’.
JFACasey also claimed that the ‘razor-sharp performances’ meant this was ‘Steven Knight at his absolute best!’
While no third season of A Thousand Blows has been confirmed yet, there is plenty to be looking forward to, after it was confirmed that Steven is penning the next James Bond movie.
After months of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, the next chapter in the James Bond saga is taking shape with Dune director Denis Villeneuve at the helm and Steven as his screenwriter.
The announcement follows an intensive search by Amazon MGM, which gained full creative control of the Bond series from Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson.
A Thousand Blows seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on Disney Plus.
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