After five seasons – two on Channel 4 and three on Netflix – Top Boy is about to come to a thrilling end. Sometimes a drugs thriller, sometimes a human drama about lives on the edge in a tough Hackney estate, always utterly compelling, it’s charted the lives of a clutch of Londoners as they operate in, or orbit around, a ruthless criminal underground. Set on the fictional Summerhouse estate in east London, it’s followed the rise and rise of two drug kingpins, Dushane (Ashley Walters) and Sully (Kane Robinson), as they’ve aimed to make a mint supplying drugs – all while dealing with rival gangs, the police and volatile supply chains in utterly ruthless fashion.
The final season brings their long-simmering rivalry to a head. Just how much trust, respect and affection do the pair still have for each with betrayals, power struggles and a pile of bodies the size of the Shard in the rearview? Throw in past actions coming back to bite them and the ingredients are there for an explosive and emotional denouement.
So what – and who – to expect? Say less, as the saying goes, and get reading.
Who’s in the Top Boy Season 3 cast?
Ashley Walters and Kane ‘Kano’ Robinson are back, of course, as Dushane and Sully, along with Simbiatu Ajikawo (aka Little Simz) as Dushane’s girlfriend Shelley, Jasmine Jobson as key Summerhouse lieutenant Jaq, Saffron Hocking as her sister Lauryn and Adwoa Aboah as Jaq’s girlfriend Becks. Natalie ‘NoLay’ Athanasiou returns as Mandy, once girlfriend of Dris, and Joshua Blissett is back as Kieron.
Joining the show for the final season are The Banshees of Inisherin’s Barry Keoghan and Brian Gleeson of Bad Sisters and Peaky Blinders fame. The play members of a close-knit Irish crime family.
When’s the final season of Top Boy being released?
All eight episodes of season 3 (aka season 5) hits Netflix on September 8.
What happens in the trailer?
The new trailer, debuted by producer and ultimate Top Boy stan Drake on his Insta, is a tingle-inducing mood piece that casts an eye back on key characters from the show’s recent past (Chantelle, Jamie) before setting the scene for a furious-looking final season. There’s glimpses of social unrest on Summerhouse Estate spilling over into a full-on riot, a shot of a furious Jaqs looking hellbent on payback and a downcast Stef looking reflective.
Most of all, it sets up the climactic clash of the show’s two vying frenemies: Sully and Dushane. The lifelong brothers-in-arms are coming together this season, like Thanos and, well, another Thanos. ‘I know what you’re on,’ Sully tells Dushane in the trailer. ‘This road don’t end good.’
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Top Boy season 3 launches on Netflix worldwide Sep 8.
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