By order of the BBC and Netflix, there’s plenty more of “Peaky Blinders” to come. The future of the hit series has remained somewhat in the air throughout the last several months. Season 6 felt like an epic bookend to the rising Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) and his quest to grab as much power for his gang as humanly possible. We know that a planned feature film is meant to serve as a grand finale to this saga (with a theatrical release, to boot). Afterwards, however? As popular as this entire venture has been, it was always difficult to imagine those involved simply walking away from it all.
Well, now we appear to have an answer. Both Netflix and the BBC announced today that the story will, in fact, continue — not with just one sequel series, but two. And we already have some great news for those worried that we might be getting a “Young Sheldon”-style prequel. Rather than an uninspired origin story (which was kind of covered in the opening season), the narrative will pick up after the events of the movie. Original series creator Steven Knight will return in his capacity as writer, and both new shows will last for six total episodes clocking in at an hour each. Even better, Netflix released a snappy logline for what fans can expect from this next stage:
Britain, 1953. After being heavily bombed in WWII, Birmingham is building a better future out of concrete and steel. In a new era of Steven Knight’s ‘Peaky Blinders,’ the race to own Birmingham’s massive reconstruction project becomes a brutal contest of mythical dimensions. This is a city of unprecedented opportunity and danger, with the Shelby family right at its blood-soaked heart.
The next chapter of the Peaky Blinders universe will be on streaming
How many properties can you name off the top of your head that started on television, made the jump to the big screen, and then returned once again to its humble roots? “Peaky Blinders” will be going somewhere that few franchises have gone before, proving just how much demand remains for our favorite group of razor-wielding, alcohol-guzzling, and utterly ruthless rogues. Now, all attention turns to how this years-spanning adventure could possibly take the next step. Season 6 of the original show ended on an oddly satisfying note, with Tommy presumed dead to the outside world and leaving the Shelby Company Limited with a total blank slate. That means the upcoming film could really go anywhere that creator and director Steven Knight chooses, leaving the sequel show(s) to be tasked with picking up in the aftermath of whatever sure-to-be seismic events go down.
But Knight himself provided a tiny clue as to how the next installment of the property could continue. In a statement celebrating the announcement, he revealed:
“I’m thrilled to be announcing this new chapter in the ‘Peaky Blinders’ story. Once again it will be rooted in Birmingham and will tell the story of a city rising from the ashes of the Birmingham blitz. The new generation of Shelbys have taken the wheel and it will be a hell of a ride.”
A “new generation of Shelbys,” eh? That sure sounds like the movie will provide some finality to Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby and (presumably) the rest of his cohort, including Paul Anderson as his brother Arthur, Sophie Rundle as his sister Ada, and all the rest. If you remember, the season 6 finale ended with Tommy’s illegitimate son Duke (Conrad Khan) accepted into the family as one of them, so could he be the younger generation that Knight is referring to? There’s no word on when the sequel series will debut (or the “Peaky Blinders” movie, for that matter), but stay tuned.