In Gangs of London, even those who rule the roost have a team of people behind the scenes really pulling the strings. For the show itself, it’s the executive producers.

From introducing new characters to killing off regular faces, the EPs get the final say on almost everything, with director Kim Hong-Sun and lead writer Pete McKenna helping them bring their vision to life.

And in season three? Well, they raise the stakes on multiple levels, and no one is safe from what lies ahead.

Speaking ahead of the series launch, executive producers Hugh Warren and Michael Eagle-Hodgson discuss taking big swings in the latest episodes, killing off some of their darlings, and bringing new life to the Gangs of London world.

HW: Season three picks up from the end of season two. The Wallaces remain central to the story, obviously the Dumanis are slightly diminished now, but there are new rivalries and new characters come in that deliver some surprises. I think the surprise for people is that some of these new characters relate to the existing families in unexpected and surprising ways.

MEH: A central mystery opens up all possibilities for that connective tissue between our gangs. Who's trustworthy, who's not? What conspiracy theories might there be? We finished series two with Elliot and Sean in a huge action sequence where Elliot finally overthrew Sean, who’s left to hang and go to prison with the promise from Elliot that he would watch him take over his empire. Elliot, now a gangster, has a red-hot spotlight on him in this new world.

HW: I've been involved in the show since season one, the development of it, so it's been incredibly rewarding. I think season three, we've come back to its roots in some ways, back to the kind of heightened Gotham London that Gareth Evans [creator] talked about. But at its core, it's still a family saga and the centre of that is the Wallace family. With Sean being trapped and disempowered, seeing him trying to fight back and come back into the gang world, there'll be a lot of pleasure for fans, really getting into the depth of those families.

MEH: It's always exciting to return to Gangs and the show's success amazes us. But equally we love the fact that fans respond so positively in a world that's constantly evolving. I think that's the excitement for us. Is that true to, I think, gangster life? Always evolving because you need to be two steps ahead of yourself and need to be watching two steps behind.

HW: I was really excited. Peter McKenna has done a brilliant job with it, really nailed the kind of balance between authenticity and the slightly heightened, almost comic book world. The drug spiking story is extremely surprising. When I first read that, I couldn’t believe it. It feels very much like it could impact the real world. That's maybe one distinctive feature of this season; the gang story is directly affecting the wider world in terms of deaths, political reaction, and discovering how the gangs are manipulated for political purpose.

MEH: When we first met Peter, we talked about what was core to gangster storytelling and the familial nature of this specific show. It's been a real journey and I think he's done it fantastically. Reading episode one, there was a real connect to Peter's promise, which was to ground our characters in a way we felt the consequences of their actions. When you read scripts with high octane action, you don't want to suspend them out of reality so much they no longer become meaningful and dangerous. We're not creating superheroes in Gangs of London, this is what makes the action so great.

HW: Every season of Gangs has had a distinctive directorial style. The show was created by Gareth Evans and Matt Flannery, and Gareth directed the first episodes and the landmark episode five in season one. Corin Hardy on series two took it in a very distinctive direction as well. What Hong-Sun brings is taking the show back to its roots in a way, and more into that kind of Asian filmmaking world. It's brought that kind of genre together, and an outsider's view of London, which is always really helpful. You get the kind of objectivity about it. He's prepared to break rules. He's an extraordinary man, but also a brilliant genre filmmaker.

MEH: Hong Sun has shown a level of work ethic and attention to detail that I think is representative on screen. His cinematic ambitions for the show have always been, I think, at the level that Gareth intended. The Gangs London is a Gothamised London. It's not supposed to be the real world, it’s why they played with geography so much on season one. What Hong Sun has done is also bring a really unique perspective, where the detail of London is as big a character as the characters that inhabit it.

MEH: On Gangs of London we're always looking at the lead directors style and intentions for action sequences. We brought Adam Horton on board as supervising stunt coordinator and he and Hong Sun really deliberated about what was unique about season one, Gareth’s style, what Corin Hardy brought to season two, which was in the horror and gore space, and focused on the consequences of those sequences. What Hong Sun landed on with Adam was if we could create a more frenetic camera language. There was always a movement that felt like something was existing, a heartbeat and a rhythm that felt more operatic. That's where the term ‘blood opera’ comes from. It's not to say this is full of gore and an expectation of a brutal approach to what we see onscreen, but more their approach to action meant that there was a rhythm. It was more instinctive and in the moment for the cast, so it wasn't quite as constructed by a shot, more constructed by the movement of the individual.

MEH: Farren Blackburn and Tessa Hoffe, our block two/block three directors bring a wealth of experience in both the high end and international marketplace and also in dramatic storytelling. I think Farren specifically had insight to the US and international action space and Tessa's brought real experience to a specific piece of storytelling for Lale that really made it feel as authentic as it possibly could, but with absolute cinematic intent and shock.

HW: As ever with Gangs, there's a high death count, so you never know how long anyone's going to last. I guess the rule is you break the rules. There's always some real surprises in this show. Some of those are all to do with deaths, some of those are to do with understanding relationships. There's an element of ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ reveals about peoples’ familial connections that people wouldn't have known about before, but also changing allegiances, changing loyalties, betrayals…particularly in season three there's an unravelling of who was responsible for the spiking, where the real power lies, who is loyal to who. Those things play through in a way I think the audience will be second guessing.

MEH: The ecosystem that our gangs find themselves in is evolving outside of the core gang structure. We find where the investors have more control of the ecosystem we find ourselves in. We have a Mayor of London that represents a character space that we haven't traversed before. I think that's going to keep all our audience on their toes, just by proxy of them knowing the stakes are raised well beyond just having a gun put to the back of your head.

MEH: Absolutely. The end of episode two, the shock moment that we’ll deliver is one that took careful consideration and planning. What we needed to do was really ride the rhythm of the episode to make sure that we were landing the emotion in that particular story.

HW: Joe's brilliant. I was really thrilled when we cast him in season one. He's got real range and depth, very charismatic, but what he brought to the character was a real vulnerability. I always loved the Wallace family. Those two brothers, kind of locked together. It's a very dysfunctional family and very damaged boys, but they supported each other. He was somebody who lived in the shadow of his father, in a way, and he’s wanted to prove himself, especially after the death of Finn Wallace at the very beginning of the series. That's his role now. He feels he needs to step up to that, and there's always that big question mark over Sean: Does he have what it takes to be a Finn Wallace? Joe plays the vulnerability of that, the slight desperation of that. Although he's very powerful and we love going on that journey with him, he is still a boy in some ways, and still unsure whether he has the authority and charisma to really run the gang.

MEH: In looking at Joe Cole as an actor, seeing the journey across the three seasons and the different types of performances he's had to give, delivering emotionally on the promise of being this gangster, King, Anointed One, to somebody you do feel a level of empathy and compassion for in just preserving his name, I think Joe Cole does that fantastically. He's incredibly playful in his performance when he needs to be. The rivalry between Elliot and Sean, the turning tide for both characters and how clever that’s been to weave has allowed us to let Joe be playful. I think we see a lot of that in season three.

HW: Well, Elliot clearly has gone to the dark side now [laughs]. He is no longer an undercover cop, he has fully committed to moving into the gang world and has proved himself. At the end of season two, we see him coming into that meeting room with authority and power among the gangs.

MEH: In season three we find Elliot with a seat at the table. That was the promise he gave Sean at the end of season two, and we now find him operating as a gangster. What happens quite quickly with Elliot is a central mystery that really impacts his operation, it throws his place at the table into jeopardy because of some of the older guard. There's a point at which Elliot is proving his position to the gangs, whilst also self-serving his own mystery.

HW: I would come back to the Wallace family. I think there are surprises there. Marian in particular has the vulnerability of those boys. She's seen Billy lose his arm, Billy coming back to London and going back into gang world, and whether Sean ever gets back. That family relationship, and the journey of that, is very powerful, as it is with Luan. I particularly enjoyed Luan’s journey this season because he's on a very tragic journey in a way, but you feel empathy for him in going on that journey.

MEH: All of our returning characters to Gangs are so important. I'm particularly excited to see the Lale and Asif continuation. I'm also incredibly excited for fans to see how the Wallaces, who have been completely broken apart across the seasons, are now. It's that core family to the show and how they may/may not reunite throughout the series.

HW: There's a very high death toll in Gangs! We have to keep bringing in new characters. More seriously, I think it’s to constantly keep rebooting the show. When we were in prep for season one, the title Gangs – plural – of London, is something that can roll and roll. People leave, other people can join. It's a very open brief in a sense.

MEH: We have some fantastic new additions: Andrew Koji as Zeek; T’Nia Miller as Simone; our Mayor of London, and Richard Dormer as Cornelius. What's really exciting about bringing new characters to the show is, where our existing characters have a history with our audience, new characters will always throw their plans into disarray.

Simone is there to truly disrupt the gangs and to set an infrastructure which would dissipate the use of gangs. There's a legalisation strand the mayor of London brings to the table, which throws a lot of conflict into the set up of our existing gangs. Zeek is infiltrating our gangs in a very specific way, an incredibly mysterious figure who seems to operate almost like a lone wolf. A lot of his actions impact the very tops of our gangs, which is incredibly interesting. Cornelius is quite a disruptive character who initially feels quite self-serving, but actually the part he plays in the season is about bringing back together his family.

HW: There are particular reveals in season three. One of the very distinctive things of this season is that there are links back into the past, back into familial past, back into Elliot's past. I think the real pleasure for fans will be putting together events that fed into the current storyline, and you understand why people are motivated to move forward in the way they do.

MEH: It sounds like a hook, but the end of the season of Gangs three is a real edge of your seat moment. It's a true coming together of heads that I feel emotional even talking about. The emotion that charges the final scene is one I truly feel will be talked about by all fans of Gangs, because it really represents the circumstance in which our gangs find themselves in; the trap of that gangster lifestyle they aren’t always wholly subscribed to, but maintain.

MEH: What sets Gangs of London apart, I truly believe, is the interconnectivity between our gangs. Certain characters will lean into the connection between one gang and allegiance with other gangs. Also at times as a play - it feels like it's conflicting with their own internal emotion and drives beyond what the actual service of being a gangster is. One can be incredibly brutal to protect either a moment, or a deal, or themselves. It allows the audience to go on a journey that they aren’t quite convinced of the outcome, rather than something that feels more procedural where there's good guys and bad guys. In Gangs of London, what makes a difference is you're not really quite sure who the good and the bad are.