What has become of Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby? This question has lingered for fans since the Netflix powerhouse wrapped up in 2022. The sixth season granted the character the nearest approximation of a happy ending he might have earned: although he thought he was perishing from a brain tumor, this was merely a trick devised by a vicious political enemy. By the conclusion, Tommy’s family is in tatters—his wife Lizzie (Natasha O’Keeffe) sets out alone, and his illegitimate son Duke (Conrad Khan) enlists with the notorious Birmingham gang—yet Tommy himself is liberated.
Following the destruction of his estate and his literal ride into the sunset, the character’s potential paths are infinite. Nevertheless, a continuation depicting Tommy on a law-abiding track probably wouldn’t appeal to audiences. The creator previously confessed that his blueprint for Tommy’s tale shifted radically when Netflix approved a movie; he now dubs Season 6 “,” though it’s uncertain how that characterizes Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, the franchise’s theatrical successor.
Although promoted as the definitive conclusion to the Peaky Blinders saga, The Immortal Man essentially serves as a final farewell for Tommy Shelby alone. The movie leaps ahead to the initial period of Nazi Germany’s aggressions, and as war consumes Europe, Tommy discovers himself drawn back into a recognizable personal war. His respite proves fleeting: as Duke (now portrayed by Barry Keoghan) introduces fresh savagery to the Blinders, Tommy must curb his excesses, yet he’ll need to rebuild a bond with his cynical offspring before extracting him from the Nazi scheme he has become entangled in. Tommy cannot accomplish either task without descending once more into the existence he gladly abandoned, positioning our anti-hero for a fresh confrontation.
“With both his family’s and his nation’s future hanging in the balance, Tommy must confront his personal demons and decide whether to embrace his heritage or destroy it completely,” The Immortal Man’s official synopsis reads. The movie will definitively conclude Tommy’s narrative, though it won’t mark the franchise’s final chapter. During a discussion with , Knight compared the film to “the end of a novel,” while indicating that additional tales remain to be shared. A follow-up series situated in the 1950s is presently under development, but prior to encountering , we must bid farewell to the Blinders’ unwilling commander.