What To Know/Update Jan 2025

January 12, 2025

For those who wondered how Cillian Murphy would have time to appear in both the Peaky Blinders movie and 28 Years Later, well, there’s been a development. Last week, word arrived that the latter project counts him as an executive producer, but his Jim character will not appear onscreen. Tommy Shelby OBE fans need not worry, though. By Order Of The Peaky Fookin’ Blinders, Tommy remains alive, and Cillian will be front and center in this film. Creator Stephen Knight’s gangster show is making “six seasons and a movie” happen long before Community will, and after the movie took the gang back to Birmingham, Knight has been talking, so let’s get caught up on what to expect.

Release Date

Filming wrapped on December 19, 2024. Netflix celebrated the occasion with a photo (taken by Robert Viglasky) of Cillian in character as Tommy alongside newcomer Barry Keoghan. What will this mean for release timing? When quizzed on a precise date, Steven Knight told Deadline that “it’s a bit too soon for that,” but he added, “you can sort of work out that it will be about a year.” It sounds like we could have a Very Peaky Christmas for The Immortal Man, which still appears to be the film’s title.

FYI before that happens, Knight devotees can also drink in A Thousand Blows (with Hayden Stagg actor Stephen Graham) and perhaps House Of Guinness, too. Knight is a busy guy, but Tommy Shelby is clearly top priority.

Cast

We have been keeping a running list of who will and won’t be back for this movie, but to sum up confirmed names, TV cast returns include Stephen Graham (as Hayden Stagg), Sophie Rundle (as Ada Shelby Thorne), Ned Dennehy (Charlie Strong), Ian Peck (Curly), and Packy Lee (Johnny Dogs). We probably will not be seeing Paul Anderson since there has been radio silence on that issue following legal issues for the Arthur Shelby actor.

Those who will almost certainly return but haven’t been explicitly confirmed are Sam Claflin (as Sir Oswald Mosely, fascist/Hitler ally) and Tom Hardy (as Alfie Solomons), who has expressed interest in returning and even did some trolling (he called it “punting”) for good measure. Bringing Alfie back in a WWII-set story could line the Jewish gangster back up in another plot to target Mosely, and although Alfie repeatedly betrayed Tommy (and you know, the whole shooting thing happened), their irresistible dynamic feels necessary to revisit, if only for a few scenes.

New additions will include Tim Roth, Rebecca Ferguson, and Barry Keoghan with the latter heavily speculated to be portraying (and multiple hints support that theory) Duke Shelby, Tommy’s illegitimate son who surfaced in the show’s sixth season and rightfully helped push Finn out the door.

Plot

Credit goes to Netflix and BBC (as well as Knight, Murphy, and everybody else involved) for keeping the plot so hush hush. Initially, Murphy assured the show’s audience that, “Tommy Shelby wasn’t finished with me,” and “[t]his is one for the fans,” and Knight chimed in, “The country is at war, and so, of course, are our Peaky Blinders.”

More recently, Knight answered to theories that this show would spawn a spin off series, and in doing so, the prolific writer told LA Times that the film will be the beginning of more Shelby family tales:

“I always knew that the story of Tommy and the Shelby family wouldn’t end with Season 6. There is such a huge global appetite for the world of ‘Peaky Blinders,’ and so much more story to tell. I think it was around the end of Season 2 when I felt that the fan base deserved a say in the trajectory of Peaky. I’ve taken the family into World War II, and the movie we have shot is wild, explosive and deeply emotional. Even when the movie is done, there is more to come. Watch this space.”

Knight reinforced this point to Deadline and stressed that the movie “won’t be the end, let me put it that way. I’m not saying none of it.”

Quite possibly, this will be a story where Tommy passes the baton to the future generation (with Duke taking over the criminal side and Charles, if he appears, taking the legitimate reins). Other possibilities include further Tommy and Winston Churchill weirdness and more maneuverings (ideally successful this time) against Oswald Mosley. To ignore either of those options would not make sense during WWII, but how much of the “Shelby family” will we really see? Ava will be on hand, perhaps to clean up a Tommy mess or few, but she’s one of the only survivors of the core group. Polly, John, and Michael are dead, and Arthur remains a mystery (but it doesn’t look good). Lizzie is probably still gone, so it could simply be Tommy and Duke from the Shelbys.

One certainty, however, is that historical accuracy will probably still be gleefully thrown out the door. That could mean that Tommy would succeed in taking out Oswald Mosely (who managed to live until 1980 IRL), long after Tommy killed Billy Kimber (who actually died in 1945 IRL) during the series proper. Heck, maybe Churchill will resign as PM, and Tommy can have the job. It wouldn’t the most ridiculous historical twisting of the Peaky Blinders world, and you know that you’d love to see it.