It’s been a while since we last saw The Peaky Blinders on screen, unless of course you’ve been binging the crime drama lately like a true Peaky fan. Thomas Shelby and his criminal gang started their journey in the direct aftermath of the First World War in 1919, and time does go by fast as season 6 brings us to 1933-34, at the end of the Prohibition era.
Throughout the series, we saw Tommy progress from being a war veteran to a ruthless criminal, and eventually, a Labour Party MP. Regardless, in the last season, we saw Tommy head-to-head with the Nazis, the Anti-Treaty IRA, and his diagnosis of tuberculoma that gave him fewer than 18 months to live, leaving us all heartbroken.
How did season 6 of Peaky Blinders end?
Peaky Blinders season 6 ended with Tommy successfully trapping and killing the IRA assassins at the Garrison pub, shooting Michael dead on Miquelon Island (which we’ve all wanted since season 5), and finally finding peace. While season 6 gave a good redemption arc to Tommy, fans continue to clamor for more, hoping that the false diagnosis of tuberculoma will open up new narrative possibilities and extend the story.
But does series creator Steven Knight want to continue the story with another season?
Is Peaky Blinders over?
The sixth season of Peaky Blinders concluded on April 3, 2022, marking a bittersweet moment for its dedicated fan base. The BBC gangster drama, which later found its way to Netflix for international audiences, has built a cult following, and nobody wants it to end yet.
Sadly, when the sixth season had just begun filming in January 2021, Steven Knight announced that this would be the last of Peaky Blinders we see in the form of a television series. So, Peaky Blinders is not returning with season 7. However, Knight had previously confirmed a seventh season of the drama was planned. Back in 2019, Knight commented (via Men’s Health):
“[Season 7] will tell a different story, where Tommy Shelby—who begins as this nihilistic, looking out only for his family person—will be redeemed, and he will become good…”
However, the trajectory changed during the production of the sixth season in 2021. In an appearance on BBC News in early 2021, Steven Knight revealed a change in the direction (via Radio Times):
“The original intention was to do seven series, but COVID has stolen a year from us, and we felt what would be a great idea is to, almost in place of that seventh series, is to go onto the big screen.”
Knight also had to shoot season 6 without one of the most loved and crucial characters in the series: the family matriarch Polly Gray. This was due to the tragic passing of actress Helen McCrory in April 2021, 4 months after the season started production. Knight added:
“We just felt, also with the loss of Helen [McCrory], that it all seemed to be pointing towards doing what I’m calling ‘the end of the beginning’. Let’s end the beginning, then let’s do the film. And then let’s see where we go in terms of spin-offs.”
The sixth season was necessary, and so it was delivered. However, Knight has now sealed that “the story will continue in another form.” This means we’re getting a Peaky Blinders movie in place of season 7. He has also kept the door open for potential spin-offs. So, rest assured, Peaky Blinders will be back, just on bigger screens than usual.
When is the Peaky Blinders movie coming out?
Steven Knight previously revealed during the BFI London Film Festival 2021 (via Variety) that the film will go into production in 2023. He also revealed in a 2022 interview that he hoped to be shooting “within 18 months.” However, there’s still no word on the official production status of the film. With Steven Knight’s schedule packed with shooting SAS Rouge Heroes season 2, This Town, Taboo season 2, and more, he seems behind on his schedule for the Peaky Blinders film.
Cillian Murphy, who plays the lead Thomas Shelby (if you didn’t already know) was also occupied with yet another Christopher Nolan collaboration, playing the lead role in Oppenheimer. But now that the film’s all wrapped and shining in the cinemas, Murphy might return to the role of Tommy soon.
As for what awaits us in the movie, Steven Knight told Radio Times, “I know what’s going to happen in those stories and it’s about a sort of untold story that happened in the Second World War, which Peakys are going to be involved in.” So, we’re time-traveling all the way to 1939, with the potential for multiple spin-offs to happen.