Of all the characters that the “manoverse” has adopted as a mascot, Peaky Blinders’ Tommy Shelby probably makes the least sense. Sure, you can take a quote about being an alpha male and stick it on an image of Walter White or Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker and kinda see how it makes a little sense, but Cillian Murphy’s 1920s Brummie crime lord is far more concerned with the intergovernmental affairs of the United Kingdom than in cultivating his “sigma aura.”
Regardless, Tommy Shelby has become an enduring figure in British culture and TV history, and his story isn’t over yet. Netflix has ordered a new Peaky Blinders spinoff series, and that’s on top of another spinoff project already in the works.
