For example, Top Boy takes place in the same location as Top Boy: Summerhouse and features many of the original cast members, including Dushane (Ashley Walters), Sully (Kane Robinson), Dris (Shone Romulus), and Gem (Giacomo Mancini).

However, some faces are missing, in particular, fans of Summerhouse have spotted Ra’Nell never made a comeback in Season 2. Walters explained Ra’Nell’s fate in conversation with Newsweek and other media and also said that he and co-star Kane Robinson served as executive producers on the most recent series.

Newsweek also has everything you need to know about the links to Summerhouse.

If you are confused why there are two Top Boys on Netflix, you have every right to be, especially if you are from outside the U.K.

Top Boy first aired in 2011 on Channel 4 in the U.K. over three nights, following life on a fictional, crime-filled East London estate.

The series, written by Ronan Bennett, returned two years later in 2013.

Sadly, Season 2 was the end of the gripping drama that had the whole country talking when Channel 4 surprisingly opted to cancel the show. Well, at least that is what fans and the show’s cast thought.

In 2016, Canadian rapper Drake (yes, the Drake) posted on Twitter about Top Boy, asking why the show was no longer airing.

Drake also voiced praise for Walters, writing in October 2014 on Twitter: “@AshleyWalters82 is too incredible!! Everybody on Top Boy gives such incredible performances. That show is just too good.”

Fast-forward to 2019—Drake is an executive producer on the show and the majority of the main cast are back at the Summerhouse Estate, including Ashley Walters as Dushane and Kane “Kano” Robinson as Sully.

The Netflix series was simply titled Top Boy Season 1 and Top Boy Season 2— technically Top Boy Seasons 3 and 4 for fans of the original.

To keep things simple, the first two seasons of Top Boy which aired in 2011 and 2013, were rebranded Top Boy: Summerhouse for Netflix.

The rebranding of the first two seasons does not mean the worlds of Top Boy: Summerhouse and Top Boy are not linked, they very much are.

Yes, Season 1 of Top Boy started with a huge time jump, but this was only to match the near-decade that had passed while Top Boy was off-screen.

The most obvious link to the original is the return of Dushane and Sully and Top Boy on Netflix picks up almost from where they left off.

At the end of the Channel 4 version, Dushane fled the U.K. to Jamaica and when audiences meet him in Season 1 of Top Boy on Netflix, he has returned from exile to gain control of the London drug market. As for Sully, he went to prison at the end of Season 2 but by the time the Netflix adaptation came around, he had served his time.

Throughout both seasons, there have been references to events and characters from Top Boy: Summerhouse. The biggest reference of all in Top Boy Season 1 was the return of Jason (Ricky Smarts), the young boy Sully became a father figure too. In Season 1, Jason is now in his teens and is the first person Sully meets outside prison.

In Season 2 of Top Boy, audiences are reunited with Dushane’s good friend Ruben (Theo Ogundipe), who almost turned against Dushane by spilling his secrets to the police to avoid serving a prison sentence himself.

Then, of course, there is Summerhouse itself. By Season 2, the estate at the center of the show is still deteriorating and is up for redevelopment but is still the main setting of the series.

However, there are some big characters from the original series who did not make a return to Top Boy Season 1 and 2, the most-talked-about being Ra’Nell (Malcolm Kamulete), a student who enters the drug business to help his mother, despite being told by Leon (Nicholas Pinnock) to stay out of trouble.

Sadly Leon’s warning would be the cause of his death at the hands of Sully and Dris. However, since Leon’s passing, what happened to Ra’Nell was never revealed.

When Top Boy returned to Netflix, fans hoped Malcolm Kamulete would reprise his role but that never materialized and, Walters has confirmed to Newsweek, Ra’Nell will not be back.

He said: “Malcolm was a brilliant addition to our cast and was one of the founding members of the show, obviously. But, he had different things that he wanted to do with his life after the first season. We all wanted him to come back but he found football, he found other things that were going on, and wanted to pursue those. I haven’t spoken to him in a while, actually. But as far as we know, that’s what it was. So, unfortunately, I can spoil this for the fans, Ra’Nell will not be coming back.”

Top Boy: Summerhouse creator Ronan Bennett also returned to bring Top Boy to Netflix, keeping the show’s original foundations at its heart. For Season 2, Walters and Robinson also served as executive producers.

Speaking to Newsweek and other media, Walters explained they wanted to be more involved to ensure the show always had the “core of Top Boy” in mind.

He said: “We wanted to be on the exec team. It wasn’t like to get a flashy credit or anything but it was just that we’ve been there from the beginning, from when the show was conceived.

“We understand it, we understand the characters. And I think we’ve got a quite clear understanding of what makes it what it is. We’re just always there trying to make sure that those elements, the essence, and the foundation that it has always had is continually pumped into it. So we stay over it. We get involved with the scripts. We get involved with the new talent that’s coming in. We get involved with new directors that come on board and just make sure that it’s a collaborative effort that always has the core of Top Boy in mind.”

Top Boy and Top Boy: Summerhouse are streaming on Netflix now.