Why was Daniel Ings axed from The Gentlemen season 3? Freddy Horniman actor makes candid admission following shock exit

Daniel Ings who plays the iconic Freddy Horniman in Netflix's The Gentlemen, has confirmed he won't be returning to the hit show for season 3.

As one of the most memorable characters in Guy Ritchie's crime comedy caper, Freddy's axing from the series comes as a huge shock, and fans want to know the reason for his departure.

The actor has opened up and been very direct about the behind-the-scenes changes and "different direction" he was told The Gentlemen would be taking before he learned Freddy wasn't included in season 3, and how he'd begun to feel he "couldn't rely on the scripts" he was given during filming for seasons 1 and 2.

"I’m not in the next one," Daniel confirms in conversation with HATC Magazine. He doesn't give away exactly what happens to Freddy, who was last seen maniacally decapitating Gospel John in the closing moments of season 2, but does refer to Freddy's departure as "wild, broken, crazy."

Humorously teasing his fate, Daniel says he believes season 3 could explain the Freddy's absence as him being off "probably mumbling into the ether somewhere in the British countryside”.

Describing his time on the show as "a lot of fun" and "a great experience," the actor explains that while he'll "always be grateful to have played a part in creating that character," Freddy was presented to him as "a completely different character" when scripts were handed out for season 2.

"I think Guy wanted to move away from the humour of it," he shares, adding, "He sat me down on my first day on the second series and was like, 'We went too far with the humour; we got to pull it back.'"

As part of the "big old journey" Freddy went on, and the changes to his character made for season 2, Daniel hints at constant script changes presenting a challenge to the cast, particularly to how Freddy's relationship with his brother Eddie came across on screen.

"The way that Guy Ritchie works is that he kind of throws the script out on the morning, and so you’re really putting a lot of yourselves as performers into those characters and helping build the momentum of a scene, ad-libbing and improvising and all this kind of stuff," he says.

However, he says the director would sometimes "rewrite the script and give you brand new pages." Because of this "constant evolution of surprise," the actor felt he "couldn’t even really rely on the scripts that you were given."

He continues to reveal, "Then new directors would come in. We’d get these new drafts, and that was a sort of constantly evolving process, and it was a real challenge to find the through-lines with the characters, and particularly for me and Theo [James]."

Delving into how their brotherly bond was depicted, Daniel says, "We had this kind of dynamic of a brotherly conflict that we had to really track through all of these evolving plotlines and storylines," and this would need to be revisited during multiple script alterations.

"So that was a constant bag of surprises," he says of navigating this particular behind-the-scenes aspect. However, he can see why certain changes need to be made to keep a series fresh, and why Freddy needed to be axed.

"You don’t want to keep playing the same game with the audience of this guy kind of comedically messing things up for them," he shares, concluding, "So it was an interesting challenge to take him in a different direction at the end. I thought it was fun."

There's one thing before bidding Freddy farewell for ever that fans would like to know: Did Daniel get to keep the chicken suit from season 1? The answer is yes and no.

"I asked for it on my very last day, and they said yes, and I took it home with me," he reveals. But, a week later, he received a phone call.

"They called and said, 'Oh my God, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have given you that,'" and he needed to return it.

"It means that when it gets to Halloween every year, I’m very resentful because I don’t have a standard costume that I can whip out," Daniel says humorously.

He concludes, "But in fairness, it did take up quite a lot of space in the wardrobe."

Seasons 1 and 2 of The Gentlemen are currently streaming on Netflix.