After years away from Birmingham, Cillian Murphy is set to take on the role of Thomas Shelby in the first Peaky Blinders film.
This comes after much speculation by show creator Steven Knight following the ending of the show’s sixth season in 2022. Over the last two years, Knight has said that the next instalment would be a feature film and had discussed hitting screens in 2024, but now it has finally become official. Although it won’t be released this year, as previously mooted.
While there had been speculation as to whether the Oppenheimer star would return for the film, Murphy said that he had unfinished business with his character, telling Deadline, “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.”
Director Tom Harper was also thrilled at the prospect of working with Murphy again, saying, “‘Peaky’ has always been a story about family – and so it’s incredibly exciting to be reuniting with Steve and Cillian to bring the movie to audiences across the world on Netflix”.
Of course, Murphy had always wanted to come back to the mean streets of Birmingham. Despite his reputation on the big screen, Murphy had previously expressed an interest about potentially returning as Shelby in the movie adaptation.
When previously talking about the film, Knight hoped that the movie would be a springboard for them to work on separate projects. Since they are not limited to series releases, Knight had previously described his intent to launch new stories as they proceed into the next decade of history.
“I think after the film, we will look at [it]…It would be me sort of launching possible new stories into the ’50s, and then I would hand over the baton of writing and creating the thing to other people…But if there is an appetite for the world then it will continue,” he said to the BBC.
Knight had previously mentioned that the next instalment of the series would take place around the start of World War II. There has been no word on when the film is set to launch on Netflix, however, production is expected to commence before the end of the year.
