[This story contains major spoilers from episode three of MobLand, “Plan B.”]
Tom Hardy has added another criminal role to his acting résumé. And this time, with MobLand, he’s unsure how his character can escape his plight. “Harry’s somewhat trapped inside being Harry,” he says of his starring fixer.
The Oscar-nominated actor reunited with his RocknRolla director Guy Ritchie, who directed the first two episodes of Paramount‘s crime series. The premiere has become the biggest launch week for a Paramount+ new series (growing to 8.8 million global viewers, per the streamer), joining Taylor Sheridan’s hit series 1923 and Landman as record-holders for new releases.
The first two episodes of MobLand saw Hardy’s longtime fixer cleaning up after the powerful Harrigan family, quite literally as he cleaned up the body of Archie (Alex Jennings) after he was shot and killed by his friend, patriarch Conrad Harrigan (Pierce Brosnan), because he was suspected of betraying the family.
But by episode three, the stakes have increased for Harry’s role with the Harrigan family when Conrad’s gangland rival Richie Stevenson (Geoff Bell) blows up his home — and that’s before it’s revealed to Richie that his son, Tommy, hasn’t just disappeared, but has been murdered. With the culprit being Eddie Harrigan (Anson Boon), a bloody beat down ensues for his accomplice, the club manager. The episode ends on a cliffhanger with the police finding Archie’s body, leaving viewers questioning who’s really loyal to the Harrigans.
While Hardy is just beginning what looks to be a long journey for MobLand, his time playing the beloved Marvel villain Venom ended with its trilogy last October. Regarding those reports that there was almost a crossover between Hardy’s Venom and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man before it fell apart, Hardy confirms to The Hollywood Reporter in the conversation below that he’s been “misquoted” and it wasn’t “killed,” it just “didn’t happen.”
Also in the conversation below, Hardy discusses if Harry can ever be free of the Harrigan clan as MobLand finds its footing, why he chose to keep Harry’s background ambiguous, his hope to do more seasons — and if he’s up for ditching the bad guy roles to take on something more upbeat in the future. (Remember This Means War?)
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It’s been 17 years since you and Guy Ritchie last worked together on a project. How did you two reconnect to work on this?
I didn’t realize it was 17 years. That’s quite a long time, isn’t it? Well, I just called him on the phone and it didn’t feel like that much time had passed and he was already interwoven into the project. So we had a catch up and pretty shortly afterwards, we were on set working. So it was pretty straightforward.
Your character is very complex, and we do see some of Harry’s background. How would you describe Harry and why he’s a fixer?
Do you know what, I’m not really quite sure about Harry’s background. I haven’t designed anything in my head as a backstory for him specifically because I like him to exist in the here and now. I don’t really want to be anchored by a preexisting backstory that may prove to be not as useful if I’m tied to it. Although there are elements where we flash back to Kevin and Harry in prison when they were kids. I think that’s just enough to know that that’s how Kevin and Harry were connected. And whose optics that memory is from, whose head is that vision in is also interesting.
Some people have a natural ability to be able to be in some form of hospitality and cater to other people’s needs and service them in a way that they can find ways through situations by not being necessarily attached to them with any emotion or have a wealth of contacts or capabilities that extend beyond an individual’s personal reach. In that aspect, I think Harry has the capacity and range to deliver options to somebody who has concerns about how they may move forward in their life. But he could easily have been working for the Dorchester as a concierge, or he could be an espionage. He could use these skills in other professional fields. It just happens that I suppose by circumstances he ended up in the world of organized crime.
You’ve said in the show: “If you help the Harrigans, the Harrigans will help you.” How are they helping Harry?
I don’t think he means that. I think what he’s trying to say is that, if you give me the information I need, we won’t kill you. It’s just wrapped it up in a little bit of a bow. (Laughs)
Did Eddie really kill Tommy all by himself or did he get help?
He killed him. He did have help dismembering the body by some poor innocent club owner who is also guilty of inciting a gang war between the Stevensons and the Harrigans from doing that. We’re not quite sure why they did that.
The scene with Harry and Bella is really interesting where she gets him to imagine a world where he’s not involved with the Harrigans. Do you think Harry would leave his world behind and escape or is it too deep into it?
With Bella Harrigan or just on his own?
On his own.
I don’t think he can escape. He’s got too much invested in it, I suppose in a forensic level, both mentally, physically, and some aspects, there’s a sort of spiritual death that probably comes with some of the stuff that he’s done that he probably can’t go to therapy and confess to any of it either. So, I think Harry’s somewhat trapped inside being Harry.
Episode three ends on a cliffhanger with the police finding Archie’s body. How is Harry going to get them out of this mess?
I don’t know. We have to figure out how they found Archie’s body because that wasn’t easy to find. Someone would have to know where that was and that would have to have come from within our own family.
Assuming Harry and the Harrigans escape Richie in the next episode, what do you envision for the future of MobLand? What is the longterm plan for this show?
The plan is definitely to see more seasons. The question is: Does it become international? There are international elements to organized crime, which are touched on in season one and the control of drugs and ammunition and weapons and people and all kinds of things that go through Europe and from Africa through to South America, Pakistan and the variable commodities that move around Europe. There are families that are involved in each European country that are vying for power to have that status to be able to move these kind of commodities through and who polices that and how that fits into a world stage.
You’ve played so many interesting characters, but a lot of them seem really heavy. Do you think we could see you in something more lighthearted in the future? Maybe a rom-com?
No (Laughs) I don’t think I suit rom-coms.
Why not?
I don’t know. I just don’t think I do. But maybe if it was interesting and good fun, I’d be up for it. But I haven’t seen anything come across the desk yet where I’d go, “Oh, I’d love to do that.” So, we’ll wait, I’ll wait. It’s just a yet… Hasn’t happened yet.
You’ve mentioned before that Venom and Tom Holland’s Spider-Man almost paired up for a project, but it was then killed by studio politics. Were you driving that idea or was it Marvel Studios?
I didn’t say that, at all. That’s kind of moved on from a very simple quote that I said specifically about my children watching Venom. It’s hard to explain to a young child why their favorite superheroes can’t be in a film together and that’s such a shame. And we almost got it, but it didn’t happen, which is the truth. It didn’t happen. And we almost got together because I remember being in the Spider-Man movie and you know it was connected, and it just didn’t happen. The trilogy is now over and it didn’t happen. So, it didn’t get killed by anything, it just didn’t happen.
I’ve been misquoted there. People get excited about anything Venom or anything to do with superheroes and stuff and it’s sort of taken on another life. I just want to be clear that I didn’t say that.
Were there talks at any point?
There are always talks, but that doesn’t mean that things manifested. There’s a future where these things will continue to be talked about until something is realized and I’m sure it will be at some point, but it just didn’t happen with me.
Now there’s Mad Max: The Wasteland (laughs). There are lots of things that are discussed, but they haven’t happened yet.
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MobLand releases new episodes Sundays on Paramount+.