Netflix Orders 'Top Boy' Prequel 'Jonny Boy' Starring Barry Keoghan
Netflix has ordered a five-episode prequel to Top Boy titled Jonny Boy, with Barry Keoghan set to reprise the role he introduced in the crime drama's final season. Variety confirmed the order on 26 August 2026. Production is slated to begin in 2027.
The series centres on Jonny McGee, a powerful figure in London's Irish mob who served as a soldier and drug distributor for his uncle Tadgh McGee, played by Brian Gleeson. Keoghan and Gleeson both joined Top Boy for its fifth and final season, which aired in 2023, with Netflix announcing their casting in July 2022 Netflix. Keoghan and his producing partner Des Byrne said in a joint statement that Jonny Boy explores the origin story of the character, whom they described as introduced in Top Boy's third and final season — the streamer's numbering counts its revived run from 2019 as seasons three through five.
Top Boy creator Ronan Bennett will write and executive produce through his Easter Partisan Films banner. Keoghan also takes an executive producer credit via his Wolfcub production company. The executive producer roster is crowded: Des Byrne for Wolfcub; Charles Steel and Alasdair Flind for Cowboy Films; Aubrey Graham (Drake) and Adel 'Future' Nur for DreamCrew Entertainment; Maverick Carter and Jamal Henderson for SpringHill Studios; and director Ali Abbasi.
Abbasi, whose credits include the 2024 film The Apprentice, will direct the prequel.
Top Boy began life on the UK's Channel 4 in 2011, running two seasons before cancellation. Drake's interest led Netflix to revive the series, with its third season debuting on the streamer in 2019. Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson led the cast throughout, playing two drug dealers navigating life on the fictional Summerhouse estate in the London borough of Hackney.
Keoghan's profile has risen sharply. He received Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for The Banshees of Inisherin, winning the BAFTA. He recently starred in the Netflix film Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man and is set to play Ringo Starr in Sam Mendes' four-part Beatles biopic series Variety.
For Top Boy fans, the order extends a universe that had appeared to close with the 2023 finale. Five episodes is a tight run — shorter than any of Netflix's Top Boy seasons — which suggests a focused character study rather than a sprawling ensemble piece. No release date has been set beyond the 2027 production start.
