Tom Hardy clears the air about MobLand’s on set ‘drama’

Tom Hardy as Harry Da Souza In MobLand, season 2, streaming on Paramount+, 2026. Photo Credit: Luke Varley/Paramount+

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Turns out, the only drama happening on the MobLand set takes place in front of the camera, Tom Hardy says.

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After a spat with writer Jez Butterworth and producer David Glasser earlier this year, Hardy had been rumoured to have been fired ahead of the release of Season 2 of the Paramount+ crime drama.

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“He refused to come out of his trailer for hours at a time,” a source told The Hollywood Reporter about Hardy’s alleged on-set behaviour, adding that the actor “kept the cast waiting” and characterizing it as “a power play.”

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As news of the alleged tension made the rounds in May, Hardy’s co-star Helen Mirren defended him on Instagram, posting a photo of the actor and writing, “Love you now and always.”

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Hardy’s other castmate, Pierce Brosnan, said rumours of a feud were “a storm in a teacup.”

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Speaking to Postmedia over Zoom from London alongside his TV wife Joanne Froggatt, Hardy insists that he and his co-stars on the series, which also includes Toby Jones, Paddy Considine, Lara Pulver, Anson Boon and Mandeep Dhillon, get on like one big dysfunctional family.
“If this was a football pitch, it would be a great pitch to play on,” Hardy, 49, says. “It’s a really good game to play in.”

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Produced by Guy Ritchie, MobLand stars Hardy as Harry Da Souza, a faithful fixer for the Harrigan crime family, which is led by powerful patriarch Conrad (Brosnan) and his devious wife, Maeve (Mirren).

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Froggatt, who gained worldwide fame playing Anna Bates on Downton Abbey, says she “always wanted to act in the gangster genre.”

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“Ever since Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, I’ve wanted to work with Guy Ritchie. For this to come my way, I was so excited. It was such a bucket list kind of job for me,” Froggatt, 46, says.

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Season 1 ended with the Harrigans in prison, but in this week’s Season 2 première they’re no longer behind bars, as they seek to expand their crime empire across London.

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Ahead of last year’s Season 1 première, Hardy described the series as “Dickensian” and “kind of like Game of Thrones, too.”

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Now that he’s had more time to be amongst Brosnan and Mirren and the vicious world of the Harrigans, Hardy has some more shows he thinks MobLand resembles.

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“I think it’s got a bit of The Addams Family in there as well, and The Munsters. There’s a bit of an old ‘80s horror vibe to it —and it’s comedy,” he says.

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Hardy also heaped praise on Butterworth, calling him a “really confident” writer.

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“It’s a versatile piece that contains both tragedy and comedy and naturalism,” he says.

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Hardy’s decision to join MobLand came after spending seven years playing Eddie Bock in Marvel’s Venom franchise.

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He’s played dozens of characters, earning an Oscar nod for his part opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant and booking memorable roles as Max Rockatansky in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road and Alfie Solomons on another British gangland drama Peaky Blinders.
But Hardy says there’s no design to his career and the roles he plays.