Tommy Shelby goes cinematic

After six seasons of stylish gloom and razor-sharp tailoring, Peaky Blinders has graduated to the movies with The Immortal Man. The film is set about six years after season six and follows Tommy Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy, on a high-stakes mission to rescue his son Duke, played by Barry Keoghan, who becomes embroiled in a Nazi plot aimed at wrecking the British economy. The movie is playing in select theaters now and lands on Netflix on March 20.

More budget, more locations, more atmosphere

Director Tom Harper says the film was built to feel more cinematic from the ground up. In plain terms, that meant more time and money to play with production values, and the freedom to shoot on real streets instead of hiding behind soundstage walls or leaning on visual effects.

"Shooting on location is really important to me," Harper explains. "Being able to go to places like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Stoke, Leeds and Bradford, rather than recreating everything in a studio, imbues everything with a different feel and a different tone." Translation: expect wide, lived-in environments instead of tiny, TV-style sets.

A long time coming

The idea for a Peaky Blinders film apparently goes back a while. Harper says the project was floated to him as far back as 2014, but then it took more than a decade for pieces to fall into place. His anecdote about being asked to direct, then waiting 13 years for the call, is very relatable if you have ever waited for a text from someone who said they would "definitely" be there.

Same Tommy, amplified

Cillian Murphy returns as Tommy Shelby — older, sharper, and invested with the kind of presence that comes from a career that has reached new heights. Murphy's recent Best Actor win has only added weight to the role; Harper says the actor is both recognizably the same and more powerful than before, with a new level of confidence and clarity in performance.

Murphy sees the film as a natural endpoint for Tommy's long story, while castmate Rebecca Ferguson has noted the movie also works as a standalone story, so new viewers should be able to follow along even if they missed the gang's TV years.

What to expect

  • War-time backdrop: The story unfolds against the pressures of World War Two, which raises the stakes beyond street-level schemes.
  • Family stakes: At its center is a father-son story, with Tommy racing to protect Duke from a dangerous conspiracy.
  • Filmic scope: Real locations, bigger sets and heightened visuals make it feel more like a movie than an extended TV episode.

If you loved the series, the film promises a sweeping, cinematic capstone. If you never watched the show, this is apparently a place you can jump in without feeling lost. Either way, it's Tommy Shelby on a mission, and he does not look like someone you want to argue with at the cinema.