Peaky Blinders season 5 put a spanner in the works when it comes to the self-contained temperament of the popular series. Historically, the season-to-season adventures of Tommy Shelby and co. happen to be mostly independent of one another, but the cliff-hanger ending to the latest entry has left fans eager to see the return of a show which was just expected to last five seasons.
Following a ton of Covid-related delays, however, the early 2021 release date for Peaky Blinders season 6 was pushed right back, and it is unlikely we’ll see the Birmingham-based Shelby gang back to our screens anytime soon.
That said, with a supposedly”f**king powerful” script in the works, we’re not short of anticipation for learning the way the series will accompany Tommy’s bout of violent psychosis or Oswald Mosely’s narrow escape.
But if you have not got that much yet, you’ve got lots of time to catch up with all the series on BBC iPlayer in the united kingdom and Netflix worldwide.
Below, we rounded up everything we know thus far about Peaky Blinders season 6 — out of its anticipated release date to brand new cast members. Proceed with care if you want to avoid spoilers for seasons 1 to 5.
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Peaky Blinders season 6 release date
As with most shows whose newest series have been expected to arrive between 2020 and 2021, the international pandemic hindered filming of Peaky Blinders season, with director Anthony Byrne telling Digital Spy that the original plan was to possess filming to begin at March 2020 and end in July after a 78-day shoot.
That didn’t happen, but relaxed limitations on television and movie production at the beginning of 2021 meant filming did finally begin in January.
“Peaky is back and with a bang,” Byrne said earlier in the season. “Following the enforced production delay due to this COVID pandemic, we find that the family in extreme jeopardy, and the stakes have never been greater. We believe this will be the best collection of all and are certain our amazing fans will love it.”
Still, if the plan to shoot the entirety of Peaky Blinders season 6 at less than three months suffered — which might signify filming has wrapped by today — it doesn’t mean we can anticipate its impending arrival.
That is because new seasons of the series require”another six months of editing,” according to its director, so we’re not certain season 6 will land any time before the conclusion of the season — with ancient 2022 looking a more likely date.
Peaky Blinders season 6 plot and cast
So, what exactly do we understand of Peaky Blinders in terms of its story?
Well, expect to see some familiar faces linking up the loose ends left by Tommy’s unsuccessful assassination of Sir Oswald Mosely. Talking of this slimy Blackshirts creator, we all know from a BBC Sounds podcast which Sam Claflin will probably be returning for the role, which the very first episode of season 6 is known as black Day’.
We also expect to see Cillian Murphy return as Tommy, together with the other usual Shelby suspects. Allowed, season 5 ended with the show’s most important character looking rather distressed in a field with a gun to his head, but our money’s on him living to fight another day.
Those psychological troubles also triggered the ethereal apparitions of his deceased wife, Grace Shelby, so we’ll probably see Annabelle Wallis again, too. Less clear is whether Tom Hardy will reappear as Alfie Solomons, after his miraculous season 5 return after being shot in the mind the season before that.
We do understand Charlie Murphy, who played unionist leader Jessie Eden, will not be returning in season 6. “Yeah. I am done now,” she told Digital Spy in March. “However, it was lots of fun.”
But what of Michael’s mysterious partner, Gina, played by The Queen’s Gambit’s Anya Taylor-Joy? Were the scheming couple behind the assassination’s collapse? Michael’s bid to take charge of Shelby Company Ltd certainly raises our suspicions. We do know we’ll be meeting more of Gina’s household in season 6 — manager Anthony Byrne informed GQ in August 2019 that, “Gina and her family are, will make themselves known.”
It is looking as the murky machinations of the interwar elite will get clearer in another season, then, but in regards to Gina, especially, “there is a whole lot to be revealed about her next series. She is a player, she is a manipulator. She is a part of a broader plan,” Byrne said.
In addition, he confirmed, on the BBC’s Obsessed With… Peaky Blinders podcast, which Stephen Graham will make an appearance in season 6 — though not as Al Capone, who he played in the comparable Boardwalk Empire series. The Chicago mob boss had been referenced at the end of Peaky Blinders’ fifth season, so it makes sense that fans had concluded.
At a particularly exciting rumor, Julia Roberts has also been tipped to join the show’s cast — although it’s unclear who she’d play. “I don’t know where that got out,” Byrne told the BBC (via Esquire), “but, yeah, fingers crossed on that.”
If it comes to Billy (Emmett J. Scanlan), who may or may not have been the person who murdered Tommy and the gang at the end of season 5, Scanlan told Digital Spy he expects, if Billy was the rat, he stands to the Blinders in future. In addition, he mentioned that the season6 scripts are”so f**king powerful. It will not disappoint, I promise you. Steven [Knight] is a master.”
Following the sad passing of actress Helen McCrory, we also do not expect Aunt Polly to re-appear in the year. During a BFI Q&A before her death, showrunner Steven Knight was asked if Aunt Polly would last until the very end of this show, to which he simply replied: “Yes.”
McCrory had also previously voiced her desire to go back for the final series, eager to”see it through to the ending”. It is unclear how the show will tackle this loss.
In terms of its setting, we know World War II will begin to loom over the narrative in Peaky Blinders season 6. “Due to the nature of the decade, the 1930s, we know what happened at the end — that war began. There are rumblings and rumors of war and that’s overshadowing the whole thing. It makes the stakes higher,” Knight told the Press Association at 2020.
That timeframe would fit with the show’s signature time jumps from season to season, using its debut outing set back in 1919 amid the lawless neighborhoods of postwar Birmingham.
How far it has come, eh?
What comes after Peaky Blinders season 6?
Five seasons in, and Peaky Blinders remains essential viewing. It is a rare thing to get a UK-made series to come up with the trustworthiness of a bigger-budget US drama, and it’s no wonder more and more big names are showing up in every season.
In the UK, seeing figures for new episodes have tripled since the show started — so don’t be shocked if Peaky Blinders season 6 isn’t the last we will see of this Shelbys.
We do know this upcoming season is going to be the finale for the series in its first form, but Knight has supported which”while the TV series will be coming to an end, the story will continue in another form.”
Could that mean that a feature-length Peaky Blinders experience shortly? We hope so.
