No one is in any doubt that season six of Peaky Blinders, which starts this month on BBC One, will be the last time we see the Shelby family in their current televisual form. However, just what kind of afterlife Tommy et al will have is already the source of much speculation: we know there’s a dance spectacular coming, and possibly some TV spin-offs, but it’s the possibility of a Peaky Blinders movie about which series creator Steven Knight has been most vocal.
“We’re going to be making [it] in the next 18 months to two years,” Knight told Esquire recently. And would it involve Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby? “Yes. That’s all I can tell you,” Knight said. However, in a new interview with Murphy, cover star of the current issue of Esquire (see the story and shoot here), when talk of a Peaky film came up, it elicited a somewhat more muted response from the 45-year-old Irish actor. “Mmm, talk,” Murphy said. “I’m open to ideas. I think [Steven Knight] wants to, but I haven’t read anything.”
In fact, Murphy confirmed that as far as things sit currently, his contractual obligations with regards to Peaky are at an end. Or, as he put it, rather more succinctly, “I’m free! Haha!” We’re not saying that the film won’t happen, but it sounds like there are still some puzzle pieces to move around before it does. And given that Murphy’s about to be whisked away by Christopher Nolan to star in his new biopic of Robert J Oppenheimer, Knight better be quick about it…
The final season of Peaky Blinders will air on BBC One in February. The Spring edition of Esquire is out now
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