The Peaky Blinders movie is filming as we speak. Cillian Murphy will return as Tommy Shelby OBE during WWII, and the production will introduce several new characters portrayed by Rebecca Ferguson, Barry Keoghan, Tim Roth, and more. Deadline also recently reported the confirmation of many returning original cast members including Sophie Rundle (as Ava Thorne), Steven Graham (as Hayden Stagg), Ned Dennehy (as Charlie Strong), Packy Lee (as Johnny Dogs), and Ian Peck (as Curly).
Questions have swirled regarding whether Tom Hardy will return as Alfie Solomons, and there’s another mystery on the table because although Joe Cole’s John Shelby is long gone, another Shelby brother could make a return.
Will Paul Anderson Return As Arthur Shelby In The Peaky Blinders Movie?
Unfortunately, Netflix hasn’t spoken on the subject (not even in their Tudum casting post), which is a complicated one. Back in 2022, Steven Knight sat down with Digital Spy to promote the series’ sixth season’s arrival. At that time, the feature film seemed far off into the distance, but when asked whether “Tommy and Arthur” would be part of the franchise’s future, Knight remarked, “It’s impossible to say yet. But the film – yes.”
So, all seemed well from a Cillian and Paul standpoint, at least for a first movie, but the production is now in full swing, and there’s been radio silence on Paul Anderson’s participation. And since that 2022 interview, Anderson fell into some legal troubles, which included a recent Boxing Day arrest for possession of crack cocaine (among other substances), for which his attorney reasoned that he was, ahem, simply stepping back into Arthur’s shoes “to please fans of the show by slipping into character.”
As sad as that situation sounds, it’s hard not to feel reminded of Arthur’s sixth-season scenes as an inebriated non-Santa, but to get back to the question at hand, nobody knows (or at least, nobody is talking) about whether Anderson will return for the Peaky Blinders movie on Netflix.
