'Peaky Blinders's Final Season Is Now On Netflix
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Good news for fans of Birmingham's bad boys: Peaky Blinders' sixth and final season is finally on Netflix!
Here's everything we know about the season.
Season 6 will be the last... sort of.
To the surprise of fans, in January 2021 show creator Steven Knight confirmed that season 6 will be the final season for Peaky Blinders—with a caveat. Rather than wrapping up the series with the sixth season, Knight said that the BAFTA-winning drama will continue "in another form," later confirming to Deadline that the show will conclude with a film. "Covid changed our plans. But I can say that my plan from the beginning was to end Peaky with a movie," he told the publication. "That is what is going to happen."
Back in 2018, Knight had told fans that they intended to do a seventh season and possibly more, saying "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." At that time, he was already enthusiastic about the possibility of a film, but said that he wouldn't "want to do it at the end, maybe between series." Clearly circumstances have changed those plans, with the announced film potentially taking the place of the previously planned seventh season.
The Trailers
To mark the New Year, the BBC shared the first full trailer:
Since then the show has been steadily offering up tidbits including a glimpse of Tom Hardy-played character Alfie Solomons, suggesting that the fan-favorite gangster will be back for another bow. The clip features Tommy delivering the ominous line, "Alfie, I think I may have written your final act."
Another sneak peek offered up a first glimpse of a new character, played by Stephen Graham, who took on the role of famous gangster Al Capone in the series Boardwalk Empire. While it's not yet clear what Graham's character will be for Peaky Blinders, given the way the clip shows he and Tommy squaring off, things look poised to get tense.
Helen McCrory, who played Aunt Polly, will not appear in the final season.
Helen McCrory, who starred as Tommy Shelby's aunt Polly Gray, passed away in April 2021 at the age of 52. McCrory, who was also known for her work in the Harry Potter films and Penny Dreadful among her many roles, had been a major part of Peaky Blinders since the show's first season.
Her husband, Damian Lewis, shared the news via Twitter.
— Damian Lewis (@lewis_damian) April 16, 2021
"I'm heartbroken to announce that after an heroic battle with cancer, the beautiful and mighty woman that is Helen McCrory has died peacefully at home, surrounded by a wave of love from family and friends," he wrote. "She died as she lived. Fearlessly. God we love her and we know how lucky we are to have had her in our lives. She blazed so brightly. Go now, Little One, into the air, and thank you."
In December, star Cillian Murphy shared a poignant obituary for the late actress in The Observer. "Helen had this genuine compassion. It was part of her DNA," he wrote, adding, "She was so funny, very dry and self-deprecating. With a series like Peaky Blinders, when you’re in it for the long haul, you really need to have a partner on set that you can laugh and joke with. If I was worried about anything, I’d go and see her. Helen was my closest pal on the set and I think I can say that the same was the case for her."
In the piece, Murphy also revealed that McCrory will not be appearing in the sixth season, sharing, "She would have been in series six if the pandemic hadn’t put everything on hold. We were just five days away from shooting in March 2020 when the lockdown was announced."
Creator Steven Knight echoed his sentiments, saying, "She was right at the heart [of the show]. There are three central characters—she was one of them. And it’s a challenge, and was a challenge, to keep going with the story without her. But we knew that she would have wanted that to continue. So that’s what we did."
When it was announced that filming on the final season had wrapped Byrne also shared an image with a sweet tribute to the late star.
In the photo, Bryne holds a clapboard emblazoned with an image of McCrory, designed by Manchester tattoo artist Lauren Marie Sutton. Byrne originally shared a look at the clapboard a few days after the news broke of McCrory's death, saying that "It has meant a huge amount to me and the crew on Peaky to have an image of Helen on set with us everyday."
There will be some casting changes.
Actress Charlie Murphy confirmed in March that she won't be reprising her role as real life union leader and Communist activist Jessie Eden for the next season. The character was last seen in the season 5 finale when Tommy saved her from being arrested just before his failed attempt to assassinate Oswald Mosley. Some fan theories suggested she could have been the one who betrayed Tommy in season 5, causing his plans for Mosley to fail, but the news that Murphy won't be back makes that seem increasingly unlikely.
On the other hand, there will be some new actors joining the cast, like James Frecheville, Rebecca Keatley, and Black Mirror star Amber Anderson, who revealed that she'll be appearing on the show's final season an an as-yet undisclosed role.
What's in store for the rest of the series?
In a conversation with Digital Spy, Byrne revealed that the first episode of the new season will be titled "Black Day"—an echo of the first episode of season five, which was titled "Black Tuesday."
"It carries through the arc of the season," the director said. "You’re following that through, but I can’t talk about that specifically."
Creator Steven Knight later explained that though his longtime intention was to end Peaky Blinders at the beginning of WWII, that the show's momentum has altered those plans.
"I… have revised the scope of what it is. It will now go into and beyond the Second World War. Because I just think the energy that is out there in the world for this, I want to keep it going, and I want to see how this can progress beyond that." he told Empire. "I think of this sixth series as the end of the beginning."
In a 2019 Canneseries TV drama festival masterclass in Cannes, Knight also offered fans a few hints about the future for Tommy Shelby; specifically, where he sees the character ending up by the time the show reaches its conclusion.
"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.”
You can catch up on the first five seasons of Peaky Blinders on Netflix right now.
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