Fightland Review: Starz & 50 Cent Reunite For An Entertaining Power-Esque Crime Thriller

Over 12 years ago, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson partnered up with Starz to mastermind the crime drama series Power. The hit series remains one of Starz’s most-watched shows, ran for six seasons, and spawned three spinoff series, with an additional two in the works. Needless to say, Jackson tapped into a form of fast-paced, gritty, and perhaps unintentionally melodramatic television that resonated with audiences, meaning it was inevitable that more, similar shows would be commissioned. Enter Fightland.

After Starz and Jackson’s latest collaboration, Black Mafia Family, came to an end last year, the superstar rapper and television network team up once again for a compelling yet formulaic crime thriller series that is a far cry from prestige television but nonetheless thoroughly entertains and is destined to appeal to fans of the Power universe.

Fightland follows Maduka “Duke” Kilroy (Howard Charles), an English heavyweight champion who enters the story as he celebrates a big victory in Las Vegas. After a vicious assault leaves him injured and his brother Calvin dead, Duke snaps and ends up spending eight years in a U.S. prison. Upon his release, Duke returns to England as he realizes that his former promoter Kingsley Marshall (Nicholas Pinnock) orchestrated the act of violence that ended his career and resulted in his brother’s death. Embedding himself with Marshall’s criminal empire, Duke seeks revenge for his brother, while navigating complex relationships with Marshall’s children, an old companion, a reluctant cartel ally, and more.

Fightland Operates More Effectively As A Crime Thriller Than A Sports Drama

Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan and Marlon Smith’s series toes the line between sports drama and crime thriller but embraces the latter far more than the former. The initial set-up in the first episode seems to suggest that a routine sports drama about a talented fighter trying to make it to the top is in store, before the rug is pulled out from under the protagonist and, in turn, the audience.

A jolting act of violence forever changes the trajectory of Duke’s life and facilitates a hard pivot into crime thriller territory. While Fightland firmly exists within the world of boxing and taps into Duke’s conflicting feelings toward the sport, boxing is a backdrop for the story that unfolds, rather than the focal point.

Instead, the focal point comes in the form of a criminal empire that uses boxing as a front for drug trafficking and money laundering. The empire is led by Kingsley Marshall, an articulate and intimidating figure who has mysteriously vanished and left his criminal operations in the hands of his children Zeke (Charles Babalola) and Cece (Anita-Joy Uwajeh). Driven by a desire to get revenge against Kingsley for orchestrating the murder of his brother, Duke teams up with a Mexican cartel, whose leader wants to overthrow the Marshall family and claim London’s drug trade for himself.

With a solid foundation laid in the series’ first episode, Fightland compels with its espionage elements. Unbeknownst to everyone but his local cartel contact, Duke has infiltrated the Marshalls with the intent to destroy their criminal empire from the inside out. This fosters a level of tension throughout the series as the audience is invested in Duke’s hidden motives not being discovered.

As a crime thriller, Fightland fails to break new ground, hitting on almost every established trope and narrative beat of the oversaturated genre of television. However, there is undeniable entertainment value that comes from a show unburdened by pretension and streamlined by a straightforward revenge story. It may not be a high-brow television drama, but one can’t help but become invested in Duke’s journey.

Complex Character Dynamics Anchor Fightland

As is the case with Jackson and the Power shows, Fightland most resoundingly triumphs through the myriad of unique relationships among its characters. At the center of the story is Duke, whose collaboration with the cartel as a means to get revenge against Kingsley puts him in an interesting place with Kingsley’s children Zeke and Cece. Their scenes harbor a quiet tension as Duke possesses such vitriol toward the Marshall family but has to keep these feelings at bay in order to successfully execute his long-term plan.

Zeke and Cece make for interesting characters in their own right as the desperately ambitious nepo-babies and heirs of the Marshall criminal empire. Their father’s absence means they have become the de facto leaders of the organization, just at a particularly fraught moment in which Duke is sowing their destruction from behind the scenes. Babalola plays Zeke with a bravado and hubris that masks his deep insecurities, while Uwajeh compels as the more reasonable yet brutal of the siblings, who happens to be engaged in a dangerous romance that spells trouble for the family.

Elsewhere, Duke shares engrossing connections with his old best friend Jay (Tyler Conti), his father Gazzer (Richard Pepple), and an important figure from his past named Joy (Deborah Ayorinde). Amidst all the flashy crime drama that encompasses the story, Fightland proves most absorbing when focusing on the intricacies of these relationships. Each feels fleshed-out, distinct, and authentic, engendering the series with a well-rounded collective of characters that give the episodes dimensionality in light of their lack of narrative novelty.

Howard Charles, known for his roles in the English dramas The Musketeers and Whitstable Pearl, brings a real screen presence to the series as Duke. Charles is effortlessly cool as the former boxer turned secret revenge seeker and authentically sells his character’s grief. This latter point is particularly commendable given that very little of the show is dedicated to building out Duke’s relationship with his late brother, in turn placing added emphasis on Charles to anchor the story emotionally. Charles takes this task in his stride and delivers a commanding performance that ensures the audience never loses sight of what drives Duke’s actions.

Fightland Has The Same Themes And Lavish Melodrama As Power

In the same manner that Fightland will appeal to those who enjoyed Power and its various spinoffs, the new Starz series also stumbles in similar areas. Thankfully, the ‘gone legit’ antihero arc that characterizes many of the central characters’ journeys in the Power shows is inverted this time around, with Duke fracturing his moral compass as a necessary precursor to getting the revenge he so desperately desires.

Conversely, Fightland shares the same focus on toxic family legacies as Power and its spinoffs did. Intergenerational cycles of violence, Shakespearean family betrayals, and parental manipulation are commonplace in Jackson and Starz’s run of shows and once again play prominent roles here, rendering the new series overly familiar both thematically and narratively.

Fightland also has a certain melodramatic, almost soap opera quality that, while making the series undeniably engaging viewing, deprives it of reaching the levels of emotional depth and narrative complexity it is clearly aiming for. Clichéd dialogue, steamy love triangles, ‘shocking’ betrayals, a primary female character defined primarily by her romantic ties to an adversary, and an overreliance on sensationalism mean the new series is certainly fast-paced and eventful, yet this comes at the cost of nuance and means Fightland is far better characterized as guilty pleasure entertainment than it is prestige television.

For better and for worse, Fightland closely mirrors Starz’s Power universe of shows in more ways than one. Those seeking a thought-provoking, subversive, awards-worthy watch will almost certainly come away underwhelmed, while those comfortable with more indulgent, sensationalized entertainment will get plenty of mileage from Jackson and Starz’s latest collaboration.

Fightland will premiere July 31, 2026, on Starz, followed by weekly episodes until September 18, 2026.