Netflix Is Finally Bringing Peaky Blinders To An End
The torch will be passed on the big screen.
Whatever happened to Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby? It’s the question that’s haunted Peaky Blinders fans since the Netflix juggernaut ended in 2022. Season 6 gave the character the closest thing to a happy ending he could have possibly deserved: though he believed he was dying of a brain tumor, that was just a ruse created by a sadistic political rival. Tommy’s family is in shambles by the end, with his wife Lizzie (Natasha O’Keeffe) striking off on her own and his illegitimate son Duke (Conrad Khan) joining the title Birmingham mob, but Tommy is at least free.
After torching his estate and literally riding off into the sunset, the possibilities for the character are endless. That said, a sequel that follows Tommy on the straight and narrow path probably isn’t what fans want. Creator Steven Knight previously admitted that his plans for Tommy’s story changed dramatically when Netflix greenlit a film; he now calls Season 6 “the end of the beginning,” but it’s not clear what that makes Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, the series’ big-screen follow-up.
While it’s been touted as the true end to the Peaky Blinders saga, The Immortal Man is really only a swan song for Tommy Shelby. The film jumps forward to the early days of Nazi Germany’s invasions, and while conflict rages across Europe, Tommy finds himself pulled back into a familiar battle of his own. His retirement turns out to be short-lived: with Duke (now played by Barry Keoghan) bringing a newfound brutality to the Blinders, Tommy is forced to rein him in, but he’ll have to reconnect with his jaded son before he can sever him from the Nazi plot he’s gotten embroiled in. There’s no way for Tommy to do either without slipping back into the life he happily left behind, setting our anti-hero up for another reckoning.
“With the future of the family and the country at stake, Tommy must face his own demons, and choose whether to confront his legacy, or burn it to the ground,” The Immortal Man’s official synopsis reads. The film will officially bring Tommy’s story to a close, but it’s not the last we’ll get of the franchise. In a conversation with Empire, Knight likened the film to “the end of a novel,” but said there are more stories to be told. A sequel series set in the 1950s is already in the works, but before we meet a new generation of Shelbys, we’ll have to say goodbye to the Blinders’ reluctant leader.
