- Filming is officially complete, and editing is underway
- Release date anticipated for Spring 2022
- First official trailer released in January 2022
- Cillian Murphy, Paul Anderson and most major cast members will be returning, along with Tom Hardy
- Will be the final season of the show as a TV series
- Peaky Blinders will continue, and likely end, as a movie
Peaky Blinders season 6 is almost here. New episodes are arriving in "early 2022," with a supposedly "f**king strong" script ready to tie up the many loose ends left by season 5's cliffhanger finale.
Peaky Blinders Season 6 will also be the final outing for showrunner Steven Knight's beloved BBC period drama on the small screen, although the story will continue through a feature-length movie "set and shot in Birmingham" intended to mark the Blinders' end.
In preparation for the show's TV finale, then, we've rounded up everything we know about Peaky Blinders season 6 below – from its expected release date to new cast members.
Naturally, proceed with caution if you want to avoid spoilers for seasons 1 to 5. You can still catch up on the Shelby gang's adventures via BBC iPlayer in the UK and Netflix internationally.
Release date: Peaky Blinders season 6 doesn't have a concrete arrival date just yet, but creator Steven Knight has hinted at a Spring 2022 release.
Cast: Most of the Shelby clan will be returning to the fold, with the likes of Cillian Murphy, Paul Anderson and Sam Claflin all reprising their roles. Tom Hardy will be returning, too, while Stephen Graham has joined the cast. Scroll down for more on who's been added to the show for season 6.
Story: We expect to see some familiar faces picking up the pieces left by Tommy's failed assassination attempt on Sir Oswald Mosely, while we'll also be seeing a lot more of Gina and her family. We also know the plot will be taking take place in the shadow of a "looming Second World War," with Cillian Murphy promising a "gothic" and "heavy" story.
What comes after season 6? "My plan from the beginning was to end Peaky with a movie... this is what's going to happen," Knight has said. What exactly comes after this final season of the show is a bit of a mystery, though: just know that the story won't end here.
Peaky Blinders season 6 release date
Shooting on Peaky Blinders season 6 wrapped after a year of pandemic-hampered filming in 2021, and showrunner Steven Knight, speaking at October's London Film Festival last year, hinted at a tentative Spring 2022 release date – meaning March, April or May this year.
Official promotional material shared by the BBC on various channels also lists "early 2022" as the show's release date, which aligns with Knight's suggestion.
#PeakyBlinders series 6. Early 2022, on @BBCOne and @BBCiPlayer. pic.twitter.com/86c6FmOA6mNovember 20, 2021
Evidently, that wasn't the original plan. As with most shows whose new series were expected to arrive between 2020 and 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic put a pin in filming of Peaky Blinders season 6, with director Anthony Byrne telling Digital Spy that the intention was to begin shooting in March 2020 and end in July after a 78-day run.
Naturally, that didn't happen, but relaxed restrictions on UK television and film production at the beginning of 2021 meant filming did eventually begin in January last year, before wrapping in May.
“Peaky is back and with a bang,” Byrne said in 2021. “After the enforced production delay due to the Covid pandemic, we find the family in extreme jeopardy and the stakes have never been higher. We believe this will be the best series of all and are sure that our amazing fans will love it."
Peaky Blinders season 6 cast and story
So, with Peaky Blinders season 6 just around the corner, what do we know in terms of its cast and story?
Well, the first official trailer for new episodes (which you'll find below) confirms the re-appearance of several roles, as well the general direction audiences can expect season 6 to take.
Recovered from that explosive 90-second clip? Good, then you'll know that several familiar faces will be returning in season 6 to tie up the loose ends left by Tommy's failed assassination of Sir Oswald Mosely.
Speaking of the slimy Blackshirts founder, Sam Claflin will be reprising his role, and we know the first episode of season 6 is called Black Day – which suggests we could get some much-needed answers early on in the new season.
Obviously, Cillian Murphy is returning as Tommy, along with the other usual Shelby suspects, including Paul Anderson as Arthur Shelby. The psychological troubles Tommy experienced at the end of season 5 also triggered the ethereal apparitions of Tommy's dead wife, Grace Shelby, so we'll likely see Annabelle Wallis again, too.
More of a surprise is the confirmation that Tom Hardy will be reappearing as Alfie Solomons, following his miraculous season 5 return after being shot in the head the season before that. The official Peaky Blinders Twitter account recently shared a teaser (with the caption "look who's back") showing Solomons meeting Tommy face-to-face for the first time, which you can watch below.
Look who's back. #PeakyBlinders Series 6, streaming early 2022@BBC @BBCiPlayer pic.twitter.com/xfpGmCM5aeDecember 1, 2021
We also know that Natasha O'Keeffe will be returning as Lizzie Stark, after the show confirmed as much on Twitter. Charlie Murphy, who played unionist leader Jessie Eden, won’t be re-appearing in season 6, though. “Yeah. I’m done now,” she told Digital Spy in March. “But it was a lot 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 failure? Michael's bid to take charge of Shelby Company Ltd certainly raises our suspicions.
Regardless, we do know we'll be seeing much more of Gina and her family in season 6 – director Anthony Byrne told GQ in August 2019 that, "Gina, and whoever her family are, will make themselves known."
It's looking like the murky machinations of the interwar elite will become clearer in the next season, then, and when it comes to Gina, specifically, "there's a lot to be revealed about her next series. She's a player, she's a manipulator. She's part of a wider plan," Byrne said.
He also confirmed, on the BBC’s Obsessed With… Peaky Blinders podcast, that Stephen Graham will make an appearance in season 6 – though not as Al Capone, who he played in the similar-but-not-the-same Boardwalk Empire series. The Chicago mob boss was referenced at the end of Peaky Blinders' fifth season, so it makes sense that fans had drawn the false conclusion.
Thanks for having me 🙏 https://t.co/lOOLYKu6kYApril 29, 2021
In a particularly exciting rumor, Julia Roberts has also been tipped to join the show's cast – though 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.” We haven't heard any more on that front, though, and since she doesn't appear in the first official trailer, we're not getting our hopes up.
Based on the activity of the show's official Twitter account, other actors confirmed to be entering the fray for season 6 include Rebecca Keatley – who is set for a major change of scenery from her role as a CBeebies presenter – Australian actor James Frecheville and Brits Amber Anderson and Conrad Khan.
The latter has earned major plaudits of late, including a nomination for BAFTA's Rising Star Award, and so proves another exciting addition to an already-stellar cast.
When it comes to Billy (Emmett J. Scanlan), who may or may not have been the person who betrayed Tommy and the gang at the end of season 5, Scanlan told Digital Spy that he hopes, if Billy was the rat, that he stands up to the Blinders in future. He also mentioned that the season 6 scripts are "so f**king strong."
"It won't disappoint, I promise you," Scanlan added. "Steven [Knight] is a master."
We know we'll be finding out who the rat is, at least. In fact, the show's director, Anthony Byrne, told Digital Spy that those who paid “close attention” should already be able to see who back-stabbed Tommy. “You certainly find out," he added "but we cut stuff around that end section to make it more oblique." Exciting stuff.
After the sad passing of actress Helen McCrory, we also don't expect Aunt Polly to re-appear in season 6. During a BFI Q&A prior to her death, showrunner Knight was asked if Aunt Polly would survive until the very end of the show, to which he simply replied: "Yes."
McCrory had also previously expressed her desire to return for the final series, eager to "see it through to the end". It's unclear how the show will address this loss, though tributes were paid by the show's cast and crew on social media.
As for its setting, we know World War II will start to loom over the story in Peaky Blinders season 6. "Because of 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 in 2020.
That timeframe would fit with the show's signature time jumps from season to season, with its debut outing set back in 1919 amid the lawless neighborhoods of post-war Birmingham.
In a rare admission about Peaky Blinders season 6, Cillian Murphy told Rolling Stone that new episodes are "going to be very intense," adding that "the word we keep using is 'gothic.' Yeah, it’s going to be heavy!"
A "gothic" and "heavy" story set amid the growing threat of World War II? It sounds like audiences are in for a dramatic ride.
What comes next for Peaky Blinders?
Five seasons in, and Peaky Blinders remains essential viewing. It's a rare thing for a UK-made show to develop the credibility of a bigger-budget US drama, and it's no wonder that more and more big names are showing up in every season.
In the UK, viewing figures for new episodes have tripled since the show began – so don't be surprised if Peaky Blinders season 6 isn't the last we'll see of the Shelbys.
We do know this upcoming season will be the finale for the show in its original guise, but Knight has confirmed that "while the TV series will be coming to an end, the story will continue in another form.”
We also know Knight has long hoped to "end Peaky with a movie," something that is "going to happen," according to a recent Deadline report, so we'd anticipate seeing a feature-length Peaky Blinders adventure in the near future.
Don't expect it to arrive any time soon, though. Speaking at the London Film Festival in October, Knight confirmed he plans to work on a Peaky Blinders movie "set in and shot in Birmingham" after season 6's release – meaning full-scale development on the project isn't likely to begin until later on in 2022.
Let's get Peaky Blinders season 6 out the way first, shall we?
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