Peaky Blinders Is Going Out With a Bang That 'Won't Disappoint'—What We Know About the Final Season

Author:
Bex April May
Jan 21, 2021

Hold on to your flat cap–it’s been revealed that the upcoming sixth season of BAFTA-winning BBC period crime drama Peaky Blinders, which is being filmed now, will be its last.

It’ll be sad news to fans of the Shelby clan across the U.K. (especially considering that Season 5 drew record audiences for the BBC, who make the show, in 2019) and audiences across the world binge-watching the gangster epic on Netflix.

Filming for the much-anticipated sixth season of the show had previously been scheduled for 2020, but was delayed due to coronavirus. But this week, it was announced that production had finally got back underway–along with the news that this would be the final season of the drama, despite the fact that there had previously been plans for a seventh.

In a statement, series creator and writer Steven Knight said: “Peaky is back and with a bang. After the enforced production delay due to the COVID pandemic, we find the family in extreme jeopardy and the stakes have never been higher.”

He added, “We believe this will be the best series of all and are sure that our amazing fans will love it. While the TV series will be coming to an end, the story will continue in another form.”

So what will come of the Shelby crime family, and its boss (and politician) Thomas Shelby, played by Irish star Cillian Murphy, in Season 6? From which cast members are returning to the plot of the final season and details of the just-announced Peaky Blinders movie, here’s everything we know about Season 6.

**When will Peaky Blinders Season 6 premiere on BBC One and be released on Netflix?**

While an air date has not been announced yet for Season 6, now that we know that it has started filming, we can make an educated guess about when we can expect to be watching it. Before COVID delayed production, the series was due to shoot between March and June of 2020, which would then have been followed by around six months of post-production work, as director Anthony Byrne explained in an interview withDigital Spy.

Since filming has now started in January 2021, we can likely expect Season 6 to air at the end of 2021, or early 2022, on BBC One in the UK and Netflix internationally.

**When did Peaky Blinders debut?**

The first season, set in Birmingham, England in 1919, just after the end of the First World War, introduced audiences to the Shelby crime family of Irish Traveller origin, and its boss, the shrewd and scheming Tommy Shelby, played by Murphy. The series first premiered in the UK on the BBC in September 2013, before being available to stream in the U.S. on Netflix in September 2014, with all subsequent series hitting the streaming platform later, too.

**How many episodes will be in Peaky Blinders Season 6?**

Seeing as every season until now has had six episodes, we can expect the sixth and final season to also be six episodes long–though this hasn’t been confirmed yet.

We do know that the first episode of the final season will be titled “Black Day”, which was revealed in a photo of the script which Byrne posted to Instagram.

**Which Peaky Blinders cast members will be returning for Season 6?**

Murphy will return in the lead as Tommy Shelby–and given that he was betrayed at the end of Season 5, we can expect him to be out for some serious revenge.

Thanks to said betrayal, the Season 5 finale also saw British fascist Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin) survive a failed assassination plot by Tommy, and has likewise been confirmed to return to the show for Season 6.

One of the other shocks delivered by the fifth season was the revelation that Alfie Solomon, played by Tom Hardy and who had been assumed dead after being shot by Tommy at the end of Season 4, is actually alive–and so Hardy fans can cross their fingers for his return in the final season, though this hasn’t been confirmed.

With the new season picking up when the last left off, Helen McCrory as Polly Gray, Paul Anderson as Arthur Shelby, Sophie Rundle as Ada Thorne and Finn Cole as Michael Gray will all return.

The Queen’s Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy will also return as Gina Grey. Emmett J Scanlan as Billy Grade, Natasha O'Keeffe as Lizzie Shelby, Harry Kirton as Finn Shelby, Packy Lee as Johnny Dogs and Charlie Murphy as Jessie Eden are also set to reprise their roles.

Byrne has also teased that there will be a new female character joining for the final season, who will give Tommy Shelby “a run for his money." In an interview with Digital Spy, Byrne revealed, “There’s a great female character who is new, who is pretty dark. I haven’t seen a character like her in Peaky before.”

“I won’t say who she is, but she certainly gives Tommy a run for his money. She challenges him in a different way basically. She’s certainly not a protagonist and I don’t know if she’s an antagonist.”

He added, “It’s similar to [Oswald] Mosley…she has a similar ideology, and that’s challenging for any character, like I’ve said before…he or she, they don’t have guns or a gang, but they have an ideology that’s like a virus and it’s more dangerous than anything.” Who will play the new character has not been announced, yet.

**How to watch and stream Peaky Blinders Season 6 on TV and online**

Peaky Blinders Season 6 airs on BBC One. It can be streamed on Netflix.

**Who died on Peaky Blinders Season 5?**

On the other hand, Aberama Gold (Aidan Gillen), Bonnie Gold (Jack Rowan) and Colonel Ben Younger (Kingsley Ben-Adir) will not be returning–as regular viewers will know that they did not survive Season 5.

**What will happen in Peaky Blinders Season 6 and are there any spoilers?**

We know that the opener of Season 6 will pick up directly from the cliffhanger of the fifth season–with Tommy in a field, with a gun to his head, and his world fallen apart, having just been betrayed in his attempt to assassinate Oswald Mosley.

Speaking in an interview, Byrne said, “It picks up directly [from season five]...The very first image you will see will be back in that field, with Tommy with a gun to his head and then we will move on from there and resolve that amazing moment.”

Knight, creator of the series, has said that he would like the drama to end with the beginning of the Second World War, so that the plot of the whole series is bookended between the two world wars–so we can assume this is where the end of the series may leave the characters.

Of course, the show also combines fiction with real-life historical figures, such as fascist politician Oswald Mosley, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, so we can also look to history for an idea of what might happen in the final season. In fact, series creator Knight teased in a Reddit AMA post, "In series 6 there will be a figure from history who may surprise people".

Given Tommy’s political career and battle with Oswald and the British Union of Fascists, many have speculated that Adolf Hitler could appear in the final season. In 2020, there were rumors that British comedy legend Rowan Atkinson would be cast as Hitler in Season 6, but a spokesperson later said that these rumors were false.

Though we don’t know yet how the series will wrap, Emmett J. Scanlan, who plays Billy Grade in the show, has said assured viewers that the final season, which he has read all the scripts for, will be "so f**king strong".

In an interview with Digital Spy, the actor teased, "I've read all the scripts since then, which of course are all subject to change...It won't disappoint, I promise you. Steven is a master."

Related: The Best British Shows

**Will Thomas Shelby die in Peaky Blinders Season 6?**

Knight has said that he wants gangster Tommy Shelby to be “redeemed” by the end of the show’s run, transforming and becoming good. Could redemption also mean death for the notorious villain?

Speaking at the Canneseries TV drama festival in Cannes in 2019, when, at the time, the show was planned to end after seven seasons, Knight said, “[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.” Variety reported that he added, “I want to take him on that journey from the person we saw [in Season 1], to the person he will become in 1939.”

Whether he survives or not by the end of the series run, audiences can expect to be left with a Tommy Shelby who is very different from the ruthless criminal we were first introduced to in Season 1.

**Will there be a Peaky Blinders movie?**

Yes! The good news for fans is that though the sixth season will be the final TV outing for the show, the story will continue with a movie spinoff. It’s been confirmed that there will be a Peaky Blinders movie after the series ends–so fans shouldn’t worry too much about saying goodbye to the show after the Season 6 finale.

Series creator Knight confirmed to Deadline, “Covid changed our plans,” referencing the fact that, pre-pandemic, there was originally talk of a seventh season to wrap up the story. He added, “But I can say that my plan from the beginning was to end Peaky with a movie. That is what is going to happen.”

Next, learn about the Bridgerton soundtrack.