orli gangs of london© Photo: Sky

EXCLUSIVE: Gangs of London star reveals major setback while filming tense cliffhanger

Warning! Potential spoilers ahead for season two episode one

Senior Features Writer
October 20, 2022

Gangs of London is back for another nail-biting season and it has not held back on the action, shock moments and plot twists.

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One star of the show, Orli Shuka, who plays head of the Albanian mafia, Luan, spoke to HELLO! ahead of the release of season two about a seriously intense scene at the end of episode one which sees Luan's house invaded by a terrifying group of balaclava-clad men armed with firearms.  

WATCH: Gangs of London season two is out now

One moment saw Luan and his nemesis fall into the swimming pool of his sprawling London mansion during a nail-biting scuffle, leading the two to remain under water for a number of minutes in a seriously close-call fight.

It seems filming was less than straight-forward for Orli, as the actor revealed to HELLO! the cast and crew were only given a matter of hours to shoot the pool scene. "The truth is, it was very tough with our schedule [which was] only four days shooting on location," he explained.

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© Photo: Sky

Orli Shuka spoke to HELLO! about the seriously tense first episode

Orli added that the bulk of the scene were filmed in three days, whereas the crew were only given four days to shoot the underwater clips. "It was a hiccup doing all of these things," he continued, "but it worked out well in the end."

Orli also opened up to HELLO! about his character's future, as he revealed he was "convinced" Luan would not survive past episode one. "We had only two episodes prepped for each character and we didn't know where this [season] was going to go," he said.

"I had a meeting with Corin previously and he showed me the storyboard for Luan's character, but only episode one, and I thought they were going to kill me [off] in the first episode."

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© Photo: Sky

Have you watched episode one yet?

After a dramatic ending to series one, the follow-up season promises more where that came from. The synopsis reads: "One year after the death of Sean Wallace and the violent reckonings of series one, the map and soul of London has been redrawn."

"The surviving Wallaces are scattered, the Dumanis broken and estranged, and ex-undercover cop Elliot is now being forced to work for the investors. To restore order, the investors have aligned behind heroin baron Asif Afridi and together they have installed a new ruling force in London in the form of brutal gang leader - Koba.

His vision for the criminal landscape is a dictatorship, a world in which old school gangster codes don't exist and in which he holds a complete monopoly over London’s drug trade. But this monopoly can't last forever."

Gangs of London 2 is available on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW from 20 October. 

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