We Own This City: UK release date of HBO series from The Wire creator David Simon - and cast with Jon Bernthal

The new drama series We Own This City covers the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF).

Many of the cast and crew from the Wire - a fictionalised series about the drug war in Baltimore - are involved in this true-crime story dramatisation.

The Wire creator David Simon and producers George Pelecanos and Nina K. Noble are back together for this latest foray into the very recent history of the war on drugs.

It’s almost taken as read now that corruption is an inherent part of the US police system, but We Own This City is still shocking in the scale and brazenness of the crimes it uncovers.

Who is in the series cast?

Jon Bernthal plays Wayne Jenkins, the leader of the GTTF who was sentenced in 2018.

Bernthal played the leading role in Marvel series The Punisher, and his due to star in the upcoming modern day TV adaptation of the 1980 film American Gigolo.

McKinley Belcher III stars as Momodo Gondo, another officer sentenced for crimes relating to corruption. Belcher has played Agent Trevor Evans in Ozark and Anthony Carter in The Passage.

David Corenswet plays David McDougall, an officer who helped to uncover corruption in the force. His previous roles include River Barkley in The Politician and Jack Castello in Hollywood.

Dagmara Dominczy plays Erika Jensen, an FBI Special Agent who investigates the GTTF. She is known for playing Karolina Novotney in Succession and Katrina in The Bedford Diaries.

Other cast members include Don Harvey as John Sieracki, Gabrielle Carteris as Andrea Smith, Tray Chaney as Gordon Hawk, Ian Duff as Ahmed Jackson, and Delaney Williams as Kevin Davis.

Is We Own This City based on a true story?

We Own This City is based on the nonfiction book of the same name published in 2021 by the Baltimore based journalist Justin Fenton.

Fenton  is an investigative reporter at The Baltimore Banner and previously worked as a crime reporter for The Baltimore Sun.

His work pieced together how the GTTF, once seen as heroes on the front line of America’s drug war, was brought down by its own wrongdoing.

The six-part HBO series, set in Baltimore between 2015-2017 and filmed on location, covers plain-clothed officers of the GTTF, a group set up in the early 2000s to target gun and drug running in the city.

The GTTF became increasingly corrupt, stealing money from the houses they searched, skimming from drug busts, and planting evidence - they were eventually brought down by the FBI.

Wayne Jenkins, the former leader of the taskforce was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison in 2018 after he pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering, robbery and falsifying records.

Another disgraced member of the GTTF featured in the series is Momodu Gondo who was sentenced to ten years for crimes including racketeering conspiracy.

In 2018, eight GTTF officers including Jenkins and Gondo were sentenced to a total of more than 100 years in prison.

In April 2019, Eric Snell  became the last officer involved with the GTTF trial to be sent to prison - he was sentenced to nine years for conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine.

When is the We Own This City UK release date?

The series was released on HBO and HBO Max in the US on 25 April.

In the UK, the series was released on Sky and NOW TV on Tuesday 7 June. The series continued weekly after that, with the finale set to air on Tuesday 12 July.

Viewers in the UK will need to have a Sky or NOW Entertainment subscription to watch the series when it becomes available in June.