After co-creating The Office with Ricky Gervais in 2001, Stephen Merchant has been bouncing around the industry. He and Gervais continued to work together for several years on shows like Extras and An Idiot Abroad, and the movie Cemetery Junction, but then Merchant struck out on his own with an HBO series, a key role in Portal 2, and a film starring Florence Pugh, The Rock, Lena Headey, and Nick Frost. His latest creation is a BBC One and Amazon MGM Studios co-production called The Outlaws, and its third season just hit Prime Video.
The crime thriller comedy series follows a group of delinquents who have to work together on a community payback project in Bristol, England. While cleaning, they find a bag of money, which sends them all on a dangerous journey through the criminal underworld.
Stephen Merchant and Elgin James (Low Riders, Mayans M.C.) came up with the idea together, but Merchant is the primary creative force of the show. He writes, directs, produces, and stars in The Outlaws as a member of the lawbreaking cleanup crew.
Merchant is far from the only familiar face on the show, though. Christopher Walken (Dune: Part Two, Severance) plays a former conman, Darren Boyd (Spy, Killing Eve) is a businessman with a failing business, and Jessica Gunning, the breakout star of Netflix’s smash hit Baby Reindeer, serves as a supervisor overseeing the community service.
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“With crime boss The Dean behind bars, The Outlaws are moving on with their lives – until one of their own returns with a deadly secret, hurling them back into mortal danger,” the synopsis on Prime Video tells us about the show’s third season.
In a recent interview, Merchant suggested that this could be the show’s last season. Speaking to Deadline, he said the series “concludes in a very nice way.” He also noted that when he finishes a project, he feels burnt out and needs to take some time away. He will “never say never,” but if there is more, it might be a while before it sees the light of day.
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