Andrew Koji continues to stake his claim for being the next big action star. After his starring role in Warrior and sensational displays in Snakes Eyes, Bullet Train, and Black Doves, he’s now brought his talents to Gangs of London Season 3, where he plays the mysterious and deadly assassin Zeek.
It’s yet another all-action display from Koji, and he couldn’t help but laugh when asked if plans to do a musical or comedy next to balance out the violent roles. “Yeah, I hope so,” he said. “But maybe I think I’m in this box now. I’m just appreciative to continue working. Yeah, I’d love to expand and do as many different things as I can. And we’ll see. We’ll see what journey will unfold for me. You never know.”
The role of Zeek is one of the highlights of Gangs of London Season 3, as the assassin turns into an unstoppable force of nature – whether it be through hand-to-hand combat, weapons, or even vehicles. Even when Zeek sits on a swing and sips on his milk, he looks dangerous. It’s an interesting part, and one that Koji didn’t need a hard sell for.
“I spoke to [lead writer] Peter McKenna [the lead writer], [lead director] Kim Hong-Sun, and [executive producer] Michael Eagle-Hodgson, and they gave me the backstory,” Koji said. “They gave me the whole spiel about who he is and his whole piece within this jigsaw puzzle of Gangs of London. He’s obviously a lone wolf assassin. He’s got a lot of trauma in him. He’s layered, and there’s things to him. He’s a coldblooded, ruthless, unstoppable machine. He’s a grenade that’s been thrown into this mix of the world of Gangs of London, he’s like a human Terminator just coming out, and he’s gonna do his thing. But, yeah, to get to play in a world like Gangs of London, while playing a character that I think I hadn’t seen before on British TV being played by someone of my background, it was an easy yes for me.”
Zeek also features in the most shocking moment of Gangs of London Season 3, as he proves to be the one who murders Joe Cole’s Sean Wallace – a character that had seemingly nine lives in previous seasons. “I was struck,” Andrew Koji said when he found out Zeek would be the one to kill Sean. “It’s quite a bold statement of a character, and it could go either way. You’re either gonna love or hate Zeek after that – I think Sean was a fan-favourite [character].”
For Koji and Cole, they only shared one day on set together, but it was special because of the storyline consequence. “There was quite an intense day of filming on set with Joe,” Koji said. “He wanted to be respectful for the departure of his character – a character that he’s built over a good couple of years. And yeah, it was good to work with him for that one day. But the execution of it [laughs] – both literally and metaphorically – yeah, it was a fun day to shoot.”
He recalled a humorous incident from the set, as Cole tried to improvise Sean’s death scene. Koji said, “One time during Joe’s takes, he jumped out of his chair. ‘Do you want to try something different?’ He’s the kind of actor who always wants to try something different. And he leapt out of his chair. But I knew all the pyrotechnics and the squib stuff was set up there, so if I moved the gun that way, it wouldn’t work. So, he ended up just flying across the air, fully committed, and landing face first in the thing. And he stayed in character the whole time. So that’s commitment for you.”
Gangs of London Season 3 doesn’t hold back on the action, and Andrew Koji’s Zeek receives more than a few moments to show what he’s all about. However, he holds a fondness for two scenes in particular. “I get to dance with Ṣọpẹ́ [Dìrísù in the sixth episode] – that was a fun one,” he said. “I do also like the CCTV fight that we had in the beginning. That was actually my introduction. That was one of my first days on set. We were shooting that on the second unit – just with the stunt boys – and that was my first day to feel out the character, Zeek. But they’re all – plus the Ṣọpẹ́ fight scene – a fun ride, yeah.”
Read our full review of Gangs of London Season 3.
Catch Andrew Koji in Gangs of London on Showmax. Also, read our interview with Gangs of London‘s Richard Dormer.
