We Finally Know When Peaky Blinders' Season 5 Will Air in the U.S.
Tommy Shelby is moving up in the world—or at least he was, last we saw him in the Peaky Blinders season 4 finale when the gangster had just been elected a Member of Parliament for the Birmingham South district.
While they may have survived one gang war (mostly) intact, trouble's never far behind the Shelby family. Here's everything we know so far about the dangers on the horizon for England's favorite outlaws.
When does Season 5 debut?
Good news for Shelby fans—Netflix has finally released the official debut date for Peaky Blinders' fifth season in the U.S., and it's sooner than anyone thought. Though the season doesn't even start airing in the U.K. until late August, American audiences won't have to wait long to get caught up, since Netlfix announced that the full season will be hitting their streaming service on Friday, October 4th.
The show held its U.K. premiere on July 18 and offered a special screening of the season's first episode at the BFI Southbank on July 23.
A post shared by Peaky Blinders (@peakyblindersofficial) on Jul 18, 2019 at 1:38pm PDT
“Series five, I think, is the best so far. There’s lots of shocks, lots of surprises,” series creator and writer Steven Knight said at the event.
The season 5 trailer promises an explosive season—literally and figuratively.
"We own the ropes, who's going to hang us now?" Tommy asks in the first official trailer for season 5, to which his sister, Ada seems to have a simple answer: "No one's going to hang you, Tommy. You're going to hang yourself."
While the Peaky Blinder look to be working hard at moving beyond their low-down criminal roots, their pasts always seem to come home to roost when it comes to the Shelby family, and if the number of explosions in the trailer is anything to go by, all is not going to remain peaceful in Birmingham for long.
Watch the full trailer:
Who is returning for season 5?
Most of the main cast is expected to return for the show's fifth chapter. Series star Cillian Murphy will be reprising his role as Tommy, and Paul Anderson will return as Tommy's fisticuff loving brother Arthur. Fans will also see Sophie Rundle as their widowed younger sister Ada once more. Helen McCrory, too, will return as the Shelby's Machiavellian aunt Polly, alongside her son Michal, played by Finn Cole.
Aidan Gillen, best known for his role as Littlefinger on Game of Thrones, will reportedly also appear in season 5.
Additionally, many members of the show's secondary cast, including Kate Phillips, who plays Arthur's wife Linda Shelby, and Natasha O'Keeffe's Lizzie Stark, who gave birth to Tommy Shelby's baby last season, are returning for the new season.
Sadly, after the events of the season 4 finale—barring a flashback—we can likely count Tom Hardy's bootlegging Alfie Solomons off of the show for good.
Who's new for the season?
A number of new cast members have been announced for Peaky Blinders's fifth season, including Anya Taylor-Joy (from The Witch, The Miniaturist, and Glass), Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games), Emmett J. Scanlan (The Fall), and Brian Gleeson (Snow White and the Huntsman).
New cast join #PeakyBlinders for series five on @BBCOne inc. @SamClaflin, @AnyaTaylorJoy, Brian Gleeson, Neil Maskell, @Dickie_Kate, @CosmoJarvis, @EmmettScanlan, @LostWaxProcess, @CharleneMcKenn, @AndrewKoji and @DarylMcCormack: https://t.co/LOBmlRVLvb pic.twitter.com/w69z8sYzM0
— BBC Press Office (@bbcpress) October 18, 2018
What's the plot for Season 5?
So far details are still vague, but with Tommy's new political position, the Peaky Blinders will likely be facing down a different kind of enemy on a whole new scale this season.
The official season synopsis, per Digital Spy:
"Series five of Steven Knight's crime family saga finds the world thrown into turmoil by the financial crash of 1929. Opportunity and misfortune are everywhere. When Tommy Shelby MP (Cillian Murphy) is approached by a charismatic politician with a bold vision for Britain, he realizes that his response will affect not just his family's future but that of the entire nation."
That "charismatic politician" seems likely to be Clafin, who will reportedly be taking on the role of Oswald Mosley, a real life British MP who later became the leader of the British Union of Fascists. The show has flirted with the rise of fascism in the U.K. before, and all signs point to the subject being a key plot point for the season.
At the London premiere, Clafin shared that, "Oswald Mosley is still very young and inexperienced in many respects. But at the same time, a lot more experienced than Tommy. So I think the two of them enjoy the challenge of trying to outwit one another and using each other. But I think for Tommy this series, especially, it's very different and it's a very different approach, it's much more of Tommy battling Tommy. Tommy is his own worst enemy."
Tommy's mental health issues, which have been present throughout the show's run and became a significant plot point toward the end of season 4, certainly seem a likely contender for the season-long arc, as Tommy is forced out of his criminal element and into the equally seedy world of politics.
There are also indications that portions of the season may take place in the U.S., with Michael, who was sent to deal with the family's interests Stateside in season 4.
Is this the last season?
While there were initially rumors that season 5 was intended to be the show's last, creator Steven Knight confirmed in May 2018 that there was still more Shelby drama to come.
"We are definitely doing [series] six and we will probably do seven," he told the Birmingham Press Club. "We've talked to Cillian Murphy and he's all for it, and the rest of the principal cast are in for it."
Commenting after winning a Bafta for Best Drama Series, he added, "My ambition is to make it a story of a family between two wars, so I always wanted to end it with the first air raid siren in 1939."
What's in store for the rest of the series?
In a Canneseries TV drama festival masterclass in Cannes, creator Steven Knight offered fans a few hints about the future for Tommy Shelby; specifically, where he sees the character ending up by the time the show comes to a conclusion.
“[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,” he explained. “I want to take him on that journey from the person we saw [in Season 1], to the person he will become in 1939.”
He also noted that he'd originally pitched the show's concept to Channel 4 25 years ago, but that he was glad that it wasn't actually picked up until 2012, when technology had advanced enough to allow for the show's high production values.
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