When Peaky Blinders’ sixth season ended in June 2022, we mourned. No more episodes with strong Brummie accents, shootouts and gripping dramas? No more episodes of watching Cillian Murphy cold-bloodedly plot and murder his way to gangland supremacy?
Even worse, there were a multitude of plot threads to tie up – not least the fact that, after crawling off into the fog to die in the season finale, Tommy Shelby actually survived. Where would he go now? What would he do?
In June, our prayers were answered: Netflix tweeted an image of a massive script for a brand-new Peaky Blinders film. It was happening!
The film is still a way off, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t hints dropping about it. Here’s what we know so far.
Tommy Shelby returns. A Peaky Blinders Film starring Cillian Murphy is coming to Netflix.
— Netflix (@netflix) June 4, 2024
“It seems like Tommy Shelby wasn’t finished with me…It is very gratifying to be recollaborating with Steven Knight and Tom Harper on the film version of Peaky Blinders. This is one for… pic.twitter.com/eBSYnKqGpA
What’s the plot?
As with so many things about this film, we don’t yet know. We do know it’s basically a continuation of the series, though, which means we’ll likely be picking things up after the events of the explosive season six finale which saw Tommy nearly meet his end.
This means the film will probably centre around his explosive comeback – and there are a few loose ends that are yet to be tied up. For instance, Sir Oswald Mosley and Lady Diana Mosley (who seem to have concocted Tommy’s fake fatal diagnosis) are still at large.
Also Jack Nelson (James Frecheville) and Gina Gray (Anya Taylor-Joy), and presumably plotting revenge on Tommy.
Showrunner Steven Knight has also dropped a few breadcrumbs about the time period it’s set in.
"I know what's going to happen in those stories and it's about a sort of untold story that happened in the Second World War, which Peakys are going to be involved in,” he told the Radio Times. It’s particularly intriguing, given Tommy’s PTSD from fighting in the First World War.
In another Radio Times interview, Knight explained that the film would be “the same but different” and that viewers should “expect the unexpected.”
In a sweet touch, he’s also addressed the death of Helen McCrory, who played Tommy’s beloved aunt Polly Gray. Knight has said she will “remain a fundamental part of the movie,” and added that “Helen was so brilliant. When anything happened in the rest of the series, I wanted people to think, 'What would Polly say?' It’s like a family when someone passes away, their opinion remains in the house. Polly’s opinion is going to last."
Who will be starring?
It’s a mark of just how beloved the original series was that the cast is absolutely stacked with big names.
We’re not entirely sure who from the original cast will be returning for the film version, but rest assured: Cillian Murphy will be returning as gangster Tommy Shelby, and Sophie Rundle will be back as Ada Thorne.
They’re being joined by Stephen Graham as crooked union worker Hayden Stagg, Packy Lee as Tommy’s friend Johnny Dogs and Ian Peck as stable boy Curly.
There are also a host of newcomers, including Rebecca Ferguson and Barry Keoghan (who also did a nice line in gangster-y menace in the last series of Top Boy). Even more intriguingly, Pulp Fiction star Tim Roth will be making an appearance, as will Jay Lycurgo, the star of recent Netflix series The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself.
What have people been saying?
First things first: Barry Keoghan has been singing the film’s praises. "I read the script, and it's epic,” the actor told Josh Horowitz during an interview. “It's so f***ing epic."
Steven Knight has also been pretty outspoken about his desire to make a film rather than a season seven, and in his interviews he’s been explaining just what it means to be given a million-pound budget to play with.
"The biggest difference between a film and TV series is the budget. When you do stuff for TV, you often have to ask people to imagine it. But with a film, you can really do it. You can blow stuff up,” he told The Mirror.
"Will Tommy be giving James Bond a run for his money? Maybe. There are parallels. We always thought of Peaky as very cinematic, so we are finally finding a screen big enough for what we want to do." Exciting stuff.
Is there a trailer?
Not yet, but we’ll keep you posted.
When will it be out?
Sadly, probably not for a while.
According to Deadline, production has only just started, so we’re not expecting this to be out until late 2025. Still: that doesn’t mean we can’t look forward to trailers and teasers dropping over the course of the next few months.
