The Peaky Blinders movie has been filming for about a month with Cillian Murphy being spotted in his Tommy Shelby gangster garb in several locations throughout England, including his Birmingham stomping grounds and in Wrexham. Many other confirmed characters will appear in the film, but Netflix and series creator Steven Knight have maintained a notable silence on whether Tommy’s older brother, Arthur, will resurface.
[Sigh] It might be time — and I would love to be proven wrong about this — for Peaky Blinders diehards to accept that Arthur could be out of the story. This would run counter to Knight’s 2022 stance, but Paul Anderson’s legal woes could have led to that shift, and further suggestions of Arthur’s omission have come from Anderson’s social media. As filming kicked off, a possibly somber Anderson posted a old photo of Arthur and Tommy together with the following Instagram caption and a black-heart emoji: “Love you brother.” Anderson’s (apparent) recent hair styling and on-another-film-set look show that he’s not exactly hanging with the Blinders, either.
The situation feels awkward at best, and that leads to another issue.
How Would The Peaky Blinders Explain Arthur’s Absence?
The movie will take a time jump into the WWII era. It would be sadly believable if Arthur had passed away in the interim. The final season, after all, made it clear that Arthur was always a stone’s throw from falling back into drugging. Even Tommy threatening an opium den wouldn’t be a permanent solution, and his reconciliation with Linda seemed like a bandaid as well. So even without any extenuating circumstances, Arthur might not have been destined to live much longer than the sixth season finale.
Additionally, the final Peaky Blinders episodes do point towards Arthur not being able to cope with discovering Tommy’s (supposedly) impending death due to a (fabricated) brain tumor. The series also didn’t clarify whether Tommy had swiftly let Arthur, or any other Shelby for that matter, know that he was still alive and well following his Ruby-fueled revelation that no tumor existed. We do know that Tommy’s gypsy wagon was burned to a crisp, and Arthur couldn’t bear to attend Tommy’s farewell dinner.
In her husband’s place, Linda read a letter: “Where you’re going, Tommy, there will I be very soon. Love, Arthur.” It doesn’t take a stretch to believe that this could have driven Arthur back toward an irrevocably bleak place.
With that said, Netflix has not been forthcoming on the subject, but leaving Tommy’s older brother out of press releases doesn’t seem like a jolly, “surprise appearance” type of omission. You know, unlike keeping a potential Tom Hardy cameo as Alfie Solomons a secret.
We do know, however, that the the film will include returning cast members Sophie Rundle, Stephen Graham, Packy Lee, Ian Peck, and Ned Dennehy. They will be joined by Barry Keoghan, Tim Roth, Rebecca Ferguson, and more. The Peaky Blinders movie doesn’t have a release date yet, but we’re waiting.
