The latest season of Top Boy is finally streaming on Netflix now after more than two years of waiting. For fans of the British drama, you may have noticed a show on Netflix called Top Boy: Summerhouse, which is linked in many ways to the most recent seasons of Top Boy. This connection adds depth and context, making it essential for viewers to grasp the full story behind these characters and their journey.
For example, Top Boy takes place in the same location as Top Boy: Summerhouse and features many of the original cast members, including Dushane (Ashley Walters), Sully (Kane Robinson), Dris (Shone Romulus), and Gem (Giacomo Mancini). However, some faces are missing; in particular, fans of Summerhouse have spotted that Ra'Nell never made a comeback in Season 2. Walters explained Ra'Nell's fate in conversation with Newsweek and other media, emphasizing the show's evolution and how he and co-star Kane Robinson served as executive producers on the most recent series.
Newsweek also has everything you need to know about the links to Summerhouse. If you are confused about why there are two Top Boys on Netflix, you have every right to be, especially if you are from outside the U.K. The original Top Boy first aired in 2011 on Channel 4 over three nights, following life on a fictional, crime-filled East London estate. The series, written by Ronan Bennett, returned two years later in 2013, but sadly, Season 2 marked the end of the gripping drama that had the whole country talking when Channel 4 opted to cancel the show.
How Top Boy Links to Top Boy: Summerhouse
Fast-forward to 2016, and Canadian rapper Drake (yes, the Drake) posted on Twitter about Top Boy, asking why the show was no longer airing. In fact, Drake voiced praise for Walters, writing in October 2014 on Twitter: “@AshleyWalters82 is too incredible!! Everybody on Top Boy gives such incredible performances. That show is just too good.” This acknowledgment from a global superstar helped reignite interest in the series and led to its revival.
By 2019, Drake became an executive producer on the show, reuniting the majority of the main cast at the Summerhouse Estate, including Ashley Walters as Dushane and Kane "Kano" Robinson as Sully. The Netflix series was titled Top Boy Season 1 and Top Boy Season 2—technically Top Boy Seasons 3 and 4 for fans of the original. To keep things simple, the first two seasons of Top Boy that aired in 2011 and 2013 were rebranded as Top Boy: Summerhouse for Netflix.
The rebranding does not imply that the worlds of Top Boy: Summerhouse and Top Boy are not linked; they are very much intertwined. Yes, Season 1 of Top Boy started with a significant time jump, but this was only to match the near-decade that had passed while Top Boy was off-screen. The most obvious link to the original is the return of Dushane and Sully, where Top Boy on Netflix picks up almost from where they left off.
At the end of the Channel 4 version, Dushane fled the U.K. to Jamaica, and when audiences meet him in Season 1 of Top Boy on Netflix, he has returned from exile to regain control of the London drug market. As for Sully, he went to prison at the end of Season 2, but by the time the Netflix adaptation came around, he had served his time.
Throughout both seasons, there have been references to events and characters from Top Boy: Summerhouse. The biggest reference of all in Top Boy Season 1 was the return of Jason (Ricky Smarts), the young boy Sully became a father figure to. In Season 1, Jason is now in his teens and is the first person Sully meets outside prison.
In Season 2 of Top Boy, audiences are reunited with Dushane's good friend Ruben (Theo Ogundipe), who almost turned against Dushane by spilling his secrets to the police to avoid serving a prison sentence himself. Then, of course, there is Summerhouse itself. By Season 2, the estate at the center of the show is still deteriorating and is up for redevelopment but is still the main setting of the series.
However, there are some significant characters from the original series who did not make a return to Top Boy Season 1 and 2, the most-talked-about being Ra'Nell (Malcolm Kamulete), a student who enters the drug business to help his mother, despite being told by Leon (Nicholas Pinnock) to stay out of trouble. Sadly, Leon's warning would be the cause of his death at the hands of Sully and Dris. However, since Leon's passing, what happened to Ra'Nell was never revealed.
Unconfirmed Reports Of Russian Aircraft Shot Down In Ukraine's Donetsk Region
Tragic Events Surrounding Robert Card: The Lewiston Mass Shooting
