Stanley Johnstone is a major antagonist in the thriller comedy-drama, The Gentlemen. Giancarlo Esposito plays the character on the Netflix show.
Stanley made his billions, $2.5 billion to be accurate, from selling crystal meth. Now he seeks to spread his empire’s roots into the UK cannabis market.
A great benefit for Stan here is that he’ll receive a robust infrastructure for his empire to get the perfect kickstart.
He doesn’t have too much after that his product will flow through the same channels as the weed has been for decades.
Proclivities & philosophies
Stanley has a penchant, a flair, and a passion for the sartorial expression.
An immaculately tailored suit and the other articles of refined gentlemanly clothing speak to him the same way a rare collection of aged wine does.
All of this is just a part of his overall philosophy, one that he borrows from William Kent. It’s the reconciliation of the feral with the refined that gets him going.
He remains suited and booted while he employs his aggression to take over whatever he wants.
He loves the rare wine collection, he loves the Halstead manor, he loves to talk of the aristocrats with Eddie, and Princess Rosanne is his latest fling, who tells Eddie that Stanley likes to collect aristocrats.
This is very true as he likes to possess what originally isn’t his. Two halves of Stanley represent two tenets of the aforementioned philosophy.
However, the part where he fails while trying to take over the UK’s weed empire from the Glass family is the timing.
The fall
During his first meeting with Eddie, he fails to buy his manor as Eddie tells him his timing’s off; he’s already had a change of mind and isn’t selling it anymore.
At the end of his first meeting with Susie, he gifts her a watch he earlier asked her to appraise. She tells him watches are for retirement, so his timing is off.
Certainly, it is his timing that fails him in his plans to take over the Glass family empire, because he does so right when two new, cunning, and formidable players emerge in the UK’s criminal underworld.
These two figures are none other than Susie and Eddie, whose union proves to be an unshakeable foundation.
Despite Stanley’s repeated efforts at derailing their business, Eddie and Susie come up with a solution to overcome them.
Finally, Eddie uses Henry Collins’s bookmaker to retrieve Stanley’s tax records, which he then sends to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
He’s arrested for multiple tax evasion offenses and all his assets are frozen. He can’t buy the Glass family business, nor can he do anything else in his power as he’s sent to the same prison as Bobby Glass.