How 'Gangs of London' Almost Became a Film Franchise and Found

Gareth Evans, the mastermind behind the BBC America series 'Gangs of London,' has revealed that his hit show was almost destined for greatness in the film franchise realm. However, after a lengthy development process and discussions with studios, Evans made a bold decision to transform the project into a television series.

According to Evans, the initial plan for 'Gangs of London' involved adapting a popular video game into a blockbuster film franchise. But as he delved deeper into the world of British gangsters and London's diverse cultural landscape, Evans realized that the format would be better suited for a TV show.

Key Analysis and Detailed Timeline

Due to Evans ultimately getting his way with the broader television format, both the game's fans and television audiences got, not only just a worthy adaptation of its source material, but one of the best gangster TV shows of all time .

A fourth season of "Gangs of London" is on the way, but no exact release date has been confirmed.

During its development, the adrenaline-fueled "Gangs of London" we know today almost took a very different turn. With three seasons under its belt and a respectable 84% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the action-packed crime drama stands out as one of TV's most successful video game adaptations.

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But according to creator Gareth Evans, the gritty British underworld saga and crime drama was originally envisioned as a blockbuster film series.

Broader Impact and Sector Outlook

"The project came to me initially as we got the rights to a video game and they wanted to make a film franchise of it," Evans informed Sky News . But the limited runtime didn't sit right with the director, who felt a feature film format would shortchange the very essence of the setting.

"One of the things I love about London is that you can step on to any street and hear 10, 15 different languages, all spoken at once," he explained, calling it a "really unique" and "interesting characteristic of the city." Evans realized that a standard movie structure would end up sacrificing world-building for the sake of pacing. "I felt like if we were going to do a film franchise, we would have two-thirds of our running time focused purely on our central characters, and then only a third left to explore the side characters that populate that world," he noted.

Believing that a rushed trilogy format "wasn't enough," he worried the creative team would fail to accurately adapt and capture the series' diversity.

In order to better capture London's multi-layered, multicultural gangster factions, Evans pushed back against the studio's initial theatrical ambitions. "I pitched it back, saying this should be a TV show because you can afford to go off and detour for 10 to 15 minutes and spend time with other characters, and learn about them in more detail," he informed Sky News.