Richard Gadd is twice as buff in Half Man first look

Richard Gadd was never as weak as Baby Reindeer‘s title implies in his brave, semi-autobiographical 2024 series. He’s strong in a different way in his new show, Half Man, however. HBO shared some first look images of the series today, featuring a very buff Gadd with a funky new haircut. He’s joined by All Of Us Strangers‘ Jamie Bell, who plays his estranged “brother” Niall in the six-episode, fictionalized drama. 

“Brother” is written with quotation marks in all the show’s press materials, implying that the two men’s relationship may be more akin to Carmy and “Cousin” Richie’s from The Bear than actual blood siblings. Whether or not they share DNA, the two clearly have a lot of history. “When Niall’s estranged “brother” Ruben (Gadd) shows up at his wedding, it leads to an explosion of violence that catapults us back through their lives,” the series’ logline reads. “Spanning almost 40 years from the 1980s to the present day, Mitchell Robertson and Stuart Campbell portray Niall (Robertson) and Ruben (Campbell) in their younger years, in a series that explores the highs and lows of Ruben and Niall’s relationship, from meeting them as troubled teenagers to witnessing their falling out as adults – with all the good, bad, terrible, funny, angry, and challenging moments along the way.”

The series promises to capture “the wild energy of a changing city – a changing world, even – and plumb the depths of what it means to be a man.” As with Baby Reindeer, it was both written and executive produced by Gadd. But while he described the show to Collider in February as a “departure” from the deeply personal nature of Baby Reindeer, he assured fans that the subject matter was “still dark.”