Peaky Blinders creator says a film about the Shelby family is a 'strong possibility'
Season 5 of Peaky Blinders debuts Friday on Netflix. So, what can the show’s rabid fan base expect from these latest tales about the murderous and mayhem-creating Shelby clan? For one thing, they can expect Glass and The Witch star Anya Taylor-Joy, who joins the period crime drama playing a character named Gina. “She’s part of a new situation which creates a lot of tension within the family,” series creator Steven Knight cagily tells EW.
Cillian Murphy’s gang leader Tommy Shelby is in the House of Commons, rubbing shoulders with a real-life historical character. “We’ve moved forward to the start of the 1930s, and Tommy Shelby is now a politician,” Knight says. “Inevitably, he comes across the gathering storm that blew through the 1930s, which was the rise of fascism, nationalism, and racism in the form of an MP called Oswald Mosley — who’s based on a real person — who is MP for the constituency next door to Tommy Shelby’s fictional constituency in Birmingham.” Mosley is portrayed by Sam Claflin. “He was the perfect choice,” Knight says of the Hunger Games actor. “Mosley was famously charming. Sam brings a sort of irresistible charm to someone who is putting forward ideas that are repugnant, even to someone like Tommy Shelby.”
Knight believes season 5 is “the best we’ve done so far. I’m very pleased with the way it continues to improve.” And he confirms that he has plans for two more seasons. “I’m planning to keep the story going until the first air raid siren of the Second World War,” he says. “Then it will be a true story of a family between the wars. That will involve season 6 and season 7. I’m pretty close to completing season 6 in terms of scripts, and then we’ll shoot that, and then I will embark on season 7. And then, if the energy is still continuing to grow, and the feeling around the world is still so positive, then we’ll think about how the story can continue in other forms.”
Might that mean a Peaky Blinders film?
“Possibly,” Knight says. “I’m ruling nothing out, and a film is certainly a strong possibility.”
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