Amazon Prime Video Rounds Up Outlaws

If you’ve been searching the schedules for Stephen Merchant’s new comedy series The Outlaws, there’s good news and bad: it’s not coming to the free-to-air channels or Sky this year but two seasons will land next year on Amazon Prime Video.

The BBC hit about seven disparate strangers who are forced together to complete a “community playback” sentence in Bristol stars Merchant, Christopher Walken, Rhianne Barreto (Honour), Gamba Cole (Hanna), Darren Boyd (Killing Eve), Clare Perkins (EastEnders), Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark), Jessica Gunning (Back), Charles Babalola (Bancroft), Nina Wadia (Goodness Gracious Me), Tom Hanson (Brassic) and Aiyana Goodfellow (Small Axe).

It earned favourable reviews and was the BBC’s biggest comedy launch this year, with more than 11 million streams on BBC iPlayer since its October premiere.

The Guardian thought it “warm, witty and surprisingly gritty” while The Telegraph described the premiere as “a promising start, but not as funny as it thinks it is”.

The series was a co-production between the BBC and Amazon Studios; the Amazon deal was brokered by BBC Studios, which is the global distributor.

“Stephen and Elgin’s unlikely band of Outlaws have clearly connected with audiences in the UK, through their compelling storylines, and hilarious and heartfelt performances,” Chris Mansolillo, director and head of content licensing in the US for Prime Video, says. “We can’t wait to introduce The Outlaws to our Prime Video members next year.”

Jonathan Blyth, director of comedy at BBC Studios, predicts The Outlaws will become “a major global comedy brand” while Merchant, who co-created it with Mayans MC’s Elgin James, claims he was “overwhelmed” by the response to S1.

“Audiences have fallen in love with the characters as much as I have and my Twitter feed is inundated with people asking for updates on series two, so I’m delighted to confirm the entire gang will return for more adventures.

“If we made The Outlaws sweat in series one, we’re really turning the heat up the second time ‘round.”

S1 will premiere on APV here and in the US, Canada, Australia and Nordic countries next year, with S2 to follow months later.