Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has confirmed plans to begin shooting a spin-off movie for the hit series in 2024.
The original BBC drama, which starred Cillian Murphy in the lead role as Birmingham gangster Tommy Shelby, ran for six seasons. The final series was broadcast in 2022, and Knight previously discussed plans to revive the programme for the big screen, which now seems to have reached an advanced stage.
In a new interview with the Radio Times, Knight explained how he’s currently in the process of finishing the script for the forthcoming film. “I’m just working on the final bits of it at the moment,” he told the publication.
“I just sit down at the keyboard and start. It’s a bit like having a dream, for me. You sit there and all this stuff comes, and then you read it back and think, ‘That’s pretty good – but where did it come from?’,” Knight added. “The plan is to start shooting that in the middle of next year.”
Knight’s update arrive shortly after Murphy revealed he would be interested in returning as Shelby for a film. In conversation with Margot Robbie, the Irish actor stated: “I’m totally open to the idea, but I also do think it was kind of a perfect six seasons.”
In 2022, Knight first claimed that he had nearly finished writing a feature-length spin-off for the show. At the time, he suggested that shooting would begin within 18 months, however, it has taken longer than anticipated for him to get his plans off the ground.
“I think after the film, we will look at [it]…It would be me sort of launching possible new stories into the ’50s, and then I would hand over the baton of writing and creating the thing to other people…But if there is an appetite for the world then it will continue,” he said to the BBC.
Sadly, last month, Benjamin Zephaniah, who portrayed Jeremiah ‘Jimmy’ Jesus in Peaky Blinders, passed away due to a brain tumour. Following news of his death, Murphy said of his co-star: “Benjamin was a truly gifted and beautiful human being — a generational poet, writer, musician and activist. A proud Brummie and a Peaky Blinder. I’m so saddened by this news. RIP.”
