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The long-awaited Peaky Blinders movie is officially underway, and fans have reacted to the latest casting announcement.
Rebecca Ferguson, star of Dune, Apple TV+ series Silo and the Mission: Impossible franchise, will be starring in the film alongside Cillian Murphy, who is reprising his role as Tommy Shelby.
An official account for the franchise shared a post revealing the news on X/Twitter on Thursday (26 July).
“The word is out...” the announcement read. “Rebecca Ferguson has been cast in the Peaky Blinders movie.”
Fans on social media praised the choice, as they called it “exciting” and “class casting”, while even those who were more ambivalent to the film were won over: “About the only thing that could get me to watch this film…”
Speculation turned to who Ferguson would be playing with the overwhelming feeling being that she would portray Shelby’s love interest, Grace Burgess. Grace entered the series as an undercover agent working as a barmaid at the Garrison pub where she tries to get close to Shelby to retrieve stolen weaponry.
Annabelle Wallis originally played the role in the series, before her character was killed off in the show’s third season.
The physical familiarity to Grace’s character prompted the speculation as fans said Ferguson looked similar to the character in the TV series. However, others were less impressed by this prospect, with one stating: “Tell me she isn’t Grace please.”
One fan snapped back, “Why would she be Grace? This ain’t some Marvel movie.”
Still, fans were still certain she could be connected to Shelby’s wife in some way, and play a romantic lead alongside the gangster.
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“Call me crazy but she could be Grace related in some way,” offered another fan.
Meanwhile others committed themselves to do more research, “Going to scour for historical figures to see who she might be playing LOL” wrote one fan.
“Peaky movie about to be sexy people convention,” chimed in another.
Aside from Ferguson, creator Steven Knight confirmed Oscar-winner Murphy will reprise his role as gangster Tommy Shelby in the forthcoming spin-off film.
The Oppenheimer star led the popular six-season British crime drama, which ran from 2013 to 2022. It was announced in 2021 that instead of wrapping up the series in a seventh season, loose ends would be tied up in a movie.
Speaking at the recent premiere of his new BBC drama, The Town, Knight shared that “Murphy is definitely returning for [the movie]”. “We’re shooting it in September just down the road in Digbeth.”
