What we know about the Peaky Blinders movie
Oscar winner Cillian Murphy is back as Tommy Shelby for a Netflix film
After becoming one of the most popular and talked about British dramas of recent years, Peaky Blinders is finally returning to screens — in the form of a new Netflix film.
Oscar winner Cillian Murphy may have graduated to Hollywood leading man in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, but it’s his turn as Brummy crime lord Tommy Shelby that fans want to see more of. Created and largely written by Steven Knight, the series first aired on BBC Two back in 2013 and concluded in 2022 after dishing out six thrilling seasons.
Taking place in Birmingham in the wake of the First World War, Knight’s show chronicled the rise of the Peaky Binders crime gang, led by Shelby. Throughout the show’s journey, we meet various members of the extended Shelby family, alongside friends, allies, villains and a number of guest stars played an array of famous faces.
Read more: The true story behind Oppenheimer
Ever since its last episode aired on BBC One in 2022, fans have been anxiously wringing their oversized flat caps in anticipation of a movie adaptation.
According to Knight, the film is preparing to enter production — but what else do we know about the Peaky Blinders movie? Let’s take a look.
When will the Peaky Blinders movie be released?
The Peaky Blinders film will be released on Netflix and will be written by Knight and directed by Heart of Stone filmmaker Tom Harper. But at the moment, no official release date has been revealed.
However, the cameras are expected to start rolling in September 2024 at a brand new movie studio in Birmingham.
Teasing what fans can expect, Knight said: “I’m genuinely thrilled that this movie is about to happen. It will be an explosive chapter in the Peaky Blinders story. No holds barred. Full-on Peaky Blinders at war.”
In 2021, Knight confirmed that a movie had always been a major part of his initial vision for Peaky Blinders, telling Deadline: “My plan from the beginning was to end Peaky with a movie. That is what is going to happen.”
Beyond the screen, Peaky Blinders has had quite the extended afterlife, one that has spilt over into tie-in books, clothing, video games, soundtracks and numerous stage shows.
What will happen in the Peaky Blinders movie?
Reader beware: Peaky Blinders spoilers lurk below
For those unaware, the show’s final season came with a shadow of uncertainty for its main hero after Tommy was diagnosed with a tuberculoma in his brain and given just a few short months to live.
Despite this harrowing diagnosis, Tommy lived to see the end of the series — and by the sounds of it, his adventures aren’t over just yet.
“I know exactly what’s going to happen, I know what the story is and I’m writing at the moment,” Knight told Metro. “It’s a very specific story, that’s based on a true story from the Second World War and will be told in the Peaky way."
Read more: Peaky Blinders movie will be set during WW2
These comments match up nicely with an interview Knight gave to Empire where he expanded on the film’s time and place: “It’s also the end of empire: we enter the Second World War and by the end of it, there is no empire, really. But I… have revised the scope of what it is.
“It will now go into and beyond the Second World War. Because I just think the energy that is out there in the world for this, I want to keep it going, and I want to see how this can progress beyond that.”
After that, news fizzled out a little bit until Knight provided a new update in March 2023, suggesting a big-budget take on Peaky Blinders could give 007 a run for his money.
“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,” Knight 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.”
Other than that, no concrete plot details about the movie have been revealed just yet.
Who is in the Peaky Blinders film cast?
Now that we know Tommy has lived to fight another day, Murphy has confirmed he will return for the Peaky Blinders film. “It seems like Tommy Shelby wasn’t finished with me,” he told Deadline. “It is very gratifying to be recollaborating with Steven Knight and Tom Harper on the film version of Peaky Blinders. This is one for the fans.”
The news will no doubt come as a relief for fans, especially considering how much doubt Murphy has been casting over the idea of returning to the franchise following his Oscars win for Oppenheimer.
Speaking after the ceremony, Murphy said of reprising his role as Tommy Shelby: “I loved playing him. He was exhausting and so wildly different for me that each time going back was kind of a journey.
“I’m really not sentimental about work. I feel like the next thing is the most exciting thing. And I mean, it was a ten-year period in my life, so it is significant, but I always feel, like, let’s keep moving.”
In a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone, Murphy suggested he was yet to see a finished script. “If there’s more story there, I’d love to do it, but it has to be right,” he said.
“Steve Knight wrote 36 hours of television, and we left on such a high. I’m really proud of that last series. So, it would have to feel legitimate and justified to do more.”
Meanwhile, Knight has suggested that he’d love to invite series co-star Stephen Graham, who played Liverpool docks union worker Hayden Stagg, back into the fold. Graham’s This is England co-star Vicky McClure is also rumoured to be on Knight’s watch list too: “We will put her in the film if she’ll do it!” he told the Metro.
With so many faces making up the Peaky Blinders series cast list — an ensemble that boasted the likes of Anya Taylor Joy, Tom Hardy and Adrian Brody — it’s currently anyone’s guess as to who may appear in the movie version.
Is there a trailer for the Peaky Blinders movie?
There’s no trailer for the Peaky Blinders movie just yet — but check back soon. When it lands, you’ll find it here.
Will there be a Peaky Blinders spin-off series?
Knight has gone on record to suggest that the Peaky Blinders story is only really getting started, telling Empire: “I think of this sixth series as the end of the beginning.”
With so many rich characters populating the Peaky universe, it feels inevitable that spin-off projects will be heading our way soon enough.
“It's a world, and we want that world to continue as long as there's an appetite for it,” Knight told the Radio Times in 2022, adding that a spin-off would be “the same sort of thing, it's working-class history, it's working-class stories, let's keep it rooted in what really happened through the '40s and '50s and tell those stories and do justice to the drama and the glamour of working-class life.”
The Peaky Blinders movie is coming soon.
