‘Gangs of London’: Waleed Zuaiter Talks Being a ‘Kid in a Candy Store’ Playing Koba (Exclusive)

Season 2 of Gangs of London features Koba who is considered the central villain of the AMC+ series. And while Koba, played by Waleed Zuaiter, didn’t appear in the first season, he has arguably made the biggest impact based on how he does business. PopCulture.com exclusively spoke to Zuaiter about his role, and to say he has enjoyed playing Koba would be an understatement. 

“It was honestly, just the image of a kid in a candy store comes to mind,” Zuaiter exclusively told PopCulture. “I became a huge fan of Season 1. I loved all the characters, and everybody is such a badass, powerful character that for me, the challenge was how to stand amongst these villains, and it’s like this villain amongst villains. It was exciting and just very empowering because for me, it was just all about dominance and dominating all the power forces in the gangs, just thrilling.”

At the start of the season, Koba was working for Asif (Asif Raza) who became the leader of the gangs. But when it was discovered that Sean Wallace (Joe Cole) was looking to bring down Asif and Koba, an alliance was made between Koba and Sean to take down the investors. Asif joined as well when Koba offered Lale (Narges Rashidi) to Asif. Now the three will look to bring down the investors while fending off others who are looking to take over London.

Zuaiter also talked about how challenging it was to play Koba. “Koba is such an extreme character,” he said. “And so the description of it was just so well written and it said something like, he’s either predator or prey, and he’s always one step ahead of his adversaries. So for me, it was unlike any role I’ve ever played, and I just had to really embody something that was like an animal.”

“That was scary for me as an actor because it’s like, you have to really take a big risk,” he continued. “The other thing in the description that was really clear to me is that this character was meant to be something that the audience enjoys and that the audience kind of relishes in what he’s doing. So I just took some big risks in terms of what I did physically with the hair, the costume, and embodying this primal animal. And then just every scene, it was just nerve-wracking in terms of what choices do I make and how do I make it interesting, not predictable, and something that really fits within the heightened world of the show, which is just so much bigger than life. For me, that was the most challenging, but also at the same time, just kind of the most rewarding and the most imaginative.” 

The season finale of Gangs of London will premiere on AMC+ on Thursday, Dec. 29 and the show has been renewed for a third season.