Meet Koba, your Gangs of London Season 2 supervillain (Exclusive)

What makes Gangs of London Season 2 different from the first? Well, the characters are still as evil, the violence is still as brutal, and the excitement is just as nail-biting. Except, now there's a new villain in town who makes everyone else seem like an angel. His name is Koba and he's played by Waleed Zuaiter.

In a roundtable interview to promote Gangs of London Season 2, we chatted with both Executive Producer Corin Hardy and the actor himself about the colorful character. How does he differ from the other gangsters of London? Is there something redeeming about this despicable human being? Read on to find out.

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Corin Hardy wanted Gangs of London Season 2 to have a 'lead villain'

While the critically acclaimed first season mainly revolved around the exploits of the Wallace and the Dumani families, things have moved up a notch in Gangs of London Season 2. Hardy explained Koba's character to SK POP:

"We just wanted to put a lead villain into the show. I mean they’re all villains in Gangs of London. Everyone’s a criminal. Everyone’s doing it for different reasons. Family, power, greed, or the cause. Writing a character like Koba…we were really conscious of not wanting to have a kind of cliched villain but we wanted someone who had charisma."

Yes, according to Corin Hardy, the new gangster in town is both terrifying and lovable:

"A magnetic quality. An animal, almost a chameleon-like quality. And Waleed just took it and ran with it and brought something incredibly special. I love watching him. And he’s almost terrifying and lovable somehow at the same time. I am really excited for audiences to get to meet him."

Zuaiter, who has an impressive body of work to his name, including Altered Carbon and Colony, elaborated on his character's tragic backstory:

"I would say the kernel of good in Koba was when he was a child. And there’s a whole backstory to this great, very colorful outrageous character. But ultimately, he grew up in a wartorn country in Georgia. His childhood was marred by brutality and barbarism."

He continued:

"The backstory is that, at the age of 11 I think it was, his whole family was slaughtered in front of him. And their faces were skinned off. So, the whole idea of the mask comes from that. And I thought that was just brilliant artistically."

Fans who tune into Gangs of London Season 2 may be rewarded with a treat at the end of the current run of episodes. Zuaiter also mentioned:

"But when we get towards the end of the series in Season 2, we hear something that Koba reveals, which is very very rare for his character. But about his childhood."

He continued:

"So, most of our personality from the studying I’ve done about human psychology as an actor…but most of our personalities are formed very early in our lives. Things that happened between the age of 4-6 years old. That kind of shapes you for better or for worse."

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Catch a new episode of Gangs of London every Thursday on AMC +.