Peaky Blinders season 6: everything we know so far

Peaky Blinders season 6 is finally on the horizon, ready to tie up the loose ends left by season 5’s cliffhanger ending.

After a lengthy pandemic-induced delay, filming on new episodes has now wrapped, and we’re excited to see how season 6’s supposedly “f**king strong” script intends to answer fans’ burning questions. 

Season 6 is confirmed to be the final outing for BBC’s lauded period drama, but the story will continue, according to showrunner Steven Knight, through a feature-length movie “set in and shot in Birmingham” intended to mark the Blinders’ end.

Below, we round up everything we know so far about Peaky Blinders season 6 – from its expected release date to new cast members. 

Naturally, proceed with caution if you want to avoid spoilers for seasons 1 to 5, though 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 release date yet, but creator Steven Knight has hinted at a Spring 2022 arrival.

Cast: The Shelby clan will return in their droves, with the likes of Cillian Murphy, Sam Claflin and Paul Anderson all reprising their roles. Stephen Graham has joined the cast, too. Scroll down for more on who’s been added to the show in season 6. 

Story: We expect to see some familiar faces tying up the loose ends left by Tommy’s failed assassination of Sir Oswald Mosely, while we’ll also be seeing a lot more of Gina and her family. The plot is expected to take place in the shadow of a “looming Second World War.”

What comes after season 6? “My plan from the beginning was to end Peaky with a movie… This is what is going to happen,” says Knight. What exactly comes after this final season of the show is a bit of a mystery, though: just know the story won’t end here.

Peaky Blinders season 6 release date

After a year of pandemic-hindered filming, shooting on Peaky Blinders season 6 has now wrapped, and showrunner Steven Knight, speaking at October’s London Film Festival, has also hinted at a tentative Spring 2022 release date – meaning March, April or May next year.

Naturally, 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.

Obviously, 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 this year.

“Peaky is back and with a bang,” Byrne said earlier 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.”

Thankfully, it would seem the plan to shoot the entirety of Peaky Blinders season 6 in less than three months endured – as mentioned above, set images confirm filming has now wrapped – though the show requires “another six months of editing,” according to its director, hence the latest Spring 2022 estimate. 

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, expect to see some familiar faces tying up the loose ends left by Tommy’s failed assassination of Sir Oswald Mosely. Speaking of the slimy Blackshirts founder, we know from a BBC Sounds podcast that Sam Claflin will be returning for the role, and that the first episode of season 6 is called ‘Black Day’. The official Peaky Blinders account also tweeted his involvement back in February 2021.

We know Cillian Murphy is returning as Tommy, too, along with the other usual Shelby suspects. Granted, season 5 ended with the show’s main character looking rather distressed in a field with a gun to his head, but our money’s on him living to fight another day – especially since we’ve spotted Murphy in several recent set images.

Those psychological troubles also triggered the ethereal apparitions of his dead wife, Grace Shelby, so we’ll likely see Annabelle Wallis again, too. Less clear is whether Tom Hardy will reappear as Alfie Solomons, following his miraculous season 5 return after being shot in the head the season before that. 

We do know Paul Anderson will be returning as Arthur Shelby, though, as well as Natasha O’Keeffe as Lizzie Stark, after the show confirmed as much on Twitter. We also know Charlie Murphy, who played unionist leader Jessie Eden, won’t be re-appearing in season 6. “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 meeting more of Gina’s 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, but 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 comparable 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 conclusion. 

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.”

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. 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 backstabbed 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 Steven 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 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 is 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.

How far it’s come, eh?

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 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 form, 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 the middle of next year.