‘Fightland’ Stars Explain Finale Death Twist — What Could Be Next in a Season 2

The king is dead. Warning: Spoilers for the Fightland Season 1 finale ahead!

Crime boss and boxing promoter Kingsley Marshall (Nicholas Pinnock) was held at gunpoint by his son Zeek (Charles Babalola) and then shot by his daughter Cece (Anita-Joy Uwajeh) in the season finale of Fightland. It was the ending to a generational war over control of the family’s drug and boxing empire in this London-set crime drama from executive producer Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Watch our video above for the full interview with Babalola and Uwajeh about the episode.

Even though Kingsley was a cruel and violent father, he was still Cece’s dad, but Uwajeh says, “I don’t know if she regrets shooting him. She definitely has to figure out how she maneuvers this situation. Shooting him opens up other avenues, perhaps gives her the opportunity to really do what she wants and take the reins the way she wants. There’ll be some sadness and remorse because who wants to do that to anybody, let alone their own dad? But in many ways, she didn’t have much of a choice.”

Starz

Babalola reflects, “A big emotion for [Zeek] was frustration and anger that she got to do it, and she didn’t even want to do it. Also, a sense of relief. The demon’s gone. The bastard that’s tormented me for most of my life and never showed me love and vulnerability is finally gone.”

The siblings fled, leaving their father sprawled over the boxing ring ropes at the family’s fancy gym. Heavyweight champ Duke Kilroy (Howard Charles) entered soon after with a gun in his hand, intent on doing the deed Cece had already done.

Instead, he held Kingsley’s bloody hand and realized from his onetime father figure’s dying words that his season-long quest for vengeance was misplaced. It was Zeek, not Kingsley, who’d set Duke up in Las Vegas in an attack that killed his brother. Duke went to confront Zeek at the boxing arena where he was presiding over a high-profile match.

Cece took the gun and handed it over to a corrupt cop on their payroll and told him to frame her stepmother/the love of Duke’s life Joy (Deborah Ayorinde). Joy was arrested but was potentially going to give evidence against the Marshalls to undercover cop Kim Harper (Tahirah Sharif) to get the charges dropped.

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“If [framing Joy] falls away, [Cece will] have to find somebody else to take the fall,” Uwajeh says. “There’s something quite interesting in watching both of them, and particularly Cebella, trying to uphold this idea that Joy was vengeful enough to shoot Kingsley. I’m also interested to see how Cebella responds to Joy’s trying to get out of being framed. How does she navigate that comeback from Joy?”

Would Cece ever align herself with Duke? “No,” Uwajeh says. “But never say never. Who knows? Zeek could do something where she needs to enlist the support and the help of Duke. But I think we’ve seen that her loyalty in many ways often lies with Zeek.”

If there’s a next round of Fightland (a renewal has not been announced), there will be plenty more folks in the fight. As Zeek said to Duke at the end of the episode, “I wasn’t the only one trying to bring you down. Things are going to get real interesting.”

Watch the video above to hear the actors talk more about episode, including how emotional it was to shoot Kingsley’s death scene with Pinnock.

Fightland, Starz