Netflix confirms ‘Top Boy’ season four release date and new cast members
The crime drama will return to the streaming platform on March 18
By Joe Goggins
Netflix have announced details of the fourth season of ‘Top Boy’ with a huge billboard in London.
The crime drama, which initially ran in 2011 and 2013 on Channel 4 before being revived for a third season by Netflix in 2019, will return to the streaming service with brand new episodes on March 18.
Netflix’s UK and Ireland Twitter account shared a ten-second clip showing the enormous ad that encircles the Odeon BFI IMAX in Waterloo, which features the show’s main cast. “We know you’ve been asking for the Top Boy date for a while now…” read the caption, “so we put it on London’s biggest billboard to clear things up once and for all. TOP BOY RETURNS MARCH 18.”
The ad would appear to confirm that key players Ashley Walters, Kano, Micheal Ward and Little Simz will reprise their roles as Dushane, Sully, Jamie and Shelley, respectively. Walters had teased the announcement on Twitter yesterday (January 30) with a photo of the billboard going up, along with the simple caption “tomorrow”.
Netflix have also confirmed a raft of new faces for season four. Fashion model Adwoa Aboah will make her acting debut, with Josephine De La Baume (‘A Very Secret Service’), Howard Charles (‘Shadow and Bone’), Erin Kellyman (‘The Green Knight’) and the rapper NoLay also joining the show. Other returning regulars include Jasmine Jobson, Lisa Dwan, Kadeem Ramsay, Saffron Hocking, Jolade Obasola, Hope Ikpoku and Araloylin Oshunremi.
Plans for a fourth season were first announced in January of 2020 by Drake, who served as an executive producer on the show’s third season and was instrumental in it being brought back. However, shooting on the new episodes was delayed by the pandemic; while cameras were initially supposed to start rolling in May 2020, filming did not start until December of that year.
The series delves into rivalries between fictional drug gangs in East London. After two short-reform season on Channel 4, the third season was expanded to 10 episodes. Netflix have yet to confirm how many episodes will make up the new season. Season three met with positive reviews upon its release, and was listed among Netflix’s most-watched shows of 2019. In a four-star write-up, The Guardian called it “up there with the best – tense, gripping and relentless.” It has earned widespread comparisons with The Wire.
Drake became involved with the show after being dismayed to find that it had been cancelled by Channel 4 after two seasons. He personally fronted the pitch to Netflix for a third instalment alongside series creator Ronan Bennett, sealing a deal within an hour.