Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Gentlemen Season 2.
Guy Ritchie is no stranger to the crime genre, bringing his signature mix of morally gray characters, sharp-tongued dialogue, and high-octane action sequences to his movies and television shows. His style is on full display in The Gentlemen — Ritchie’s punchier, British take on The Godfather. The Gentlemen premiered in 2024, a spin-off of the 2019 film of the same name. Recently returning for its second season, the Netflix series follows Eddie Horniman’s (Theo James) descent into criminality after inheriting the Duke of Halstead title and discovering his family’s business arrangement with the Glass family weed enterprise.
Eddie completes his transformation into Michael Corleone, Al Pacino’s iconic character in The Godfather trilogy, throughout Season 2. The latest chapter finds Eddie as a changed man, with his natural aptitude for pushing marijuana no longer warring with his moral compass. While Ritchie has done a nearly beat-for-beat replication of Michael’s character arc, the British director has reimagined what it means to be a woman in The Godfather. The Gentlemen has replaced Michael’s outsider wife with the brash Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario).
Eddie Horniman Serves as a Stand-In for Michael Corleone
Theo James as Eddie Horniman in The Gentlemen Season 2Image via Netflix
The Gentlemen mirrors The Godfather, the iconic novel by Mario Puzo that follows the Corleone crime family. It was adapted for the big screen by Francis Ford Coppola. James’ Eddie serves as a stand-in for Pacino’s Michael. On paper, they seem very different, one a member of British nobility and the other an Italian-American mobster. But the two men share a similar military background that kept them removed from their families’ illegal affairs. Even after surpassing their older brothers to head their families, Eddie and Michael both initially expressed a desire to legitimize their businesses. Though, at the end of the first season, Eddie has embraced his new role as “The Duke” and finalized a permanent partnership with the Glass family.
But it’s Eddie’s arc in the latest season that really establishes their parallel stories, following their descents from favorite sons to ruthless leaders. Eddie even literally became a godfather. Perhaps their strongest connections, both men lose their wives in failed hits meant for them and the discovery they were double-crossed by their bitter older brothers, Fredo (John Cazale) and Freddy (Daniel Ings). In The Godfather, Michael escapes to Italy for safety. There, he marries Apollonia (Simonetta Stefanelli), but his wife dies in a car bombing. In The Gentlemen, Eddie gets engaged to Bella (Benedetta Porcaroli), a member of an Italian crime family, after becoming on the outs with the Glass family. But, when the newlyweds are racing to their honeymoon, Bella dies in an exploding plane.
Guy Ritchie Broke the Mold When Creating Susie Glass
Guy Ritchie is rewriting Kay Adams Corleone’s story in The Gentlemen, a role played by Diane Keaton in The Godfather films and one of the franchise’s few major female characters. She is Michael’s second wife and the mother of his children — Anthony and Mary Corleone. Kay is the girlfriend he left behind when fleeing to Italy, eventually reuniting after Apollonia’s death. An outsider in his world, she is a school teacher and daughter of a Baptist pastor who falls in love with Michael at a time when he was staying out of the family business. Initially, Kay naively believes his claims that he will legitimize the operation and his denials of crimes. But the escalating violence in their lives starts to pay a toll, with the couple becoming increasingly estranged before eventually divorcing.
Scodelario’s Susie steps into Kay’s shoes, or at least is Eddie’s female counterpart. She proclaimed herself his “business wife,” insisting they only have a working relationship. But Susie is not a school teacher with an aversion to violence, she is instead her crime family’s heir apparent. She is the daughter of crime boss Bobby Glass (Ray Winstone) and heads the day-to-day operations as Bobby runs the bigger picture from prison.
Susie is not a classic mafia wife nor someone blindly brought into this world. Eddie is actually the one who started from an outsider position. After uncovering his late father’s agreement with Glass to have weed grown beneath their property, it is actually Susie who fostered his involvement. In the first season, Susie was the one to lead with violence while Eddie struggled with killing a witness. Susie has more agency than Kay, forging solo into cocaine distribution despite typically following her father’s instructions.
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Guy Ritchie’s ‘The Gentlemen’ Transforms Into a Completely Different Show in Season 2 | Review
Theo James and Kaya Scodelario return for another season of crime and corruption.
Kaya Scodelario Acknowledges the ‘Chemistry’ Between Susie Glass and Eddie Horniman
Kaya Scodelario as Susie standing across from Theo James as Eddie in Episode 2 of Season 1 of The GentlemenImage via Netflix
Despite insisting their relationship is platonic, Season 2 of The Gentlemen finally puts a voice to Eddie and Susie’s growing connection. Throughout the season, they are repeatedly asked to define their dynamic, always doubling down that it is professional in nature. The tension is exacerbated by their romantic ventures, with Susie having an ill-fated romance with Joe Green (Tyler Conti) and Eddie’s eventual marriage to Bella. “I guess I always thought you might end up with, well, you know, with someone else,” Eddie’s sister Charly (Jasmine Blackborow) said during his wedding weekend in Italy, referencing Susie.
Scodelario spoke with Collider about whether Susie and Eddie could ever move beyond something platonic. “I think they don’t know yet, and that’s what’s been kind of beautiful about the journey with them is we’ve allowed that space to grow organically,” she explained. “Like, it was never kind of meant to be a thing, and I think the natural chemistry between the characters has grown. The situations that they’re in have led them to be closer, whether they like it or not.”
But she added that romance wouldn’t make sense right now with their diverting paths. Mimicking Michael and Kay’s relationship, Bella’s death did lead to Eddie and Susie’s reconciliation. While they have never acted on any lingering feelings, their professional partnership is on the mend.
The Gentlemen has been hitting The Godfather’s arc, but Kay and Susie are likely the point of diversion. While violence is the force that separates Kay and Michael, it is largely the thing that binds Susie and Eddie. With Susie now pursuing another drug market and Eddie’s family fracturing after this brother’s betrayal, it seems hard to imagine they will soon become romantic. Their relationship will continue to play out, with Netflix renewing the series for a third season.
Release Date
2024 – 2026-00-00
Network
Netflix
Directors
David Caffrey, Guy Ritchie, Eran Creevy, Nima Nourizadeh
