The Top Boy universe is expanding in two directions at once. Netflix has greenlit both a spinoff centered on Jaq and a prequel series following Jonny McGee, with both projects announced at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday.
First up, Jasmine Jobson (MobLand, In the Shadows) will reprise her BAFTA-winning role as Jaq in the six-episode series, simply titled Jaq. Ryan Calais Cameron is writing and executive producing alongside Jobson, with Top Boy creator Ronan Bennett executive producing via Easter Partisan Films, Charles Steel and Alasdair Flind for Cowboy Films, Aubrey Graham and Adel “Future” Nur for DreamCrew Entertainment, and Maverick Carter and Jamal Henderson for SpringHill Studios. Exact plot details are being kept under wraps. Production is set to begin in 2027.
The second order is Jonny Boy, a five-episode prequel that will see Barry Keoghan reprise his role as Jonny McGee, the high-ranking Irish mob member and drug distributor introduced in Top Boy‘s fifth and final season. Bennett returns to write and executive produce via Easter Partisan Films, with Ali Abbasi directing. Keoghan executive produces alongside Des Byrne under their Wolfcub Productions banner, framing the project as a passion play they pitched themselves.
“We pitched our vision and idea to Netflix and the executive producers and they were so supportive in wanting to bring our passion project forward, exploring Jonny McGee’s origin story through a new bold lens,” Keoghan and Byrne said in a joint statement.
The timing works in Keoghan’s favor. Since Jonny first appeared on the Summerhouse estate in 2023, the actor has carried Saltburn, earned an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA win for The Banshees of Inisherin and signed on to play Ringo Starr in Sam Mendes’ four-part Beatles biopic series. Jonny Boy marks the first series he has led that he also pitched himself.
Executive producers on Jonny Boy include Bennett for Easter Partisan Films, Steel and Flind for Cowboy Films, Keoghan and Byrne for Wolfcub, Graham and Nur for DreamCrew Entertainment, Carter and Henderson for SpringHill Studios and Abbasi.
Top Boy originally debuted on Channel 4 in 2011 before being cancelled, then was revived by Netflix following interest from Drake, running for three additional seasons through its fifth and final season in 2023. The show won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Drama in 2024. Both new series are set to begin production in 2027.