Peaky Blinders Creator’s New Netflix Series House of Guinness Brings Family Drama to the Guinness Dynasty

Steven Knight is swapping razor blades in caps for pint glasses. His next Netflix series, House of Guinness, isn’t about gangsters at all — it’s a family saga about the Guinness beer dynasty, and it drops worldwide in one go this September. Here’s the quick, clean rundown: what it is, who’s in it, who’s making it, and how the rollout works.

What House of Guinness is actually about

Set between Dublin and New York in the late 1800s, the show centers on Sir Benjamin Guinness — the beer magnate who built the business with his father when he was still a teenager — and the chaos that follows his death in 1868. With Benjamin gone, his will becomes the spark for a very Victorian succession brawl among four adult children: Arthur, Anne, Ben (Benjamin Jr.), and Edward.

Arthur is the eldest and steps into leadership. Edward is the youngest — and in real life, he’s the one who eventually turned the company into such a juggernaut that he became the richest man in Ireland. The series digs into the egos, alliances, and bad decisions that come with trying to live up to a legendary name.

"Here is a deceased father deciding the fate of his children. The will determines the trajectory of each of those siblings. What is a better place to start a drama than that? They all receive whatever they receive. None of them are happy."

Knight is clearly in succession-mode here, not gangster-mode. The Arthur/Edward dynamic is the engine: Arthur would rather decamp to London for a hedonistic whirl, while Edward is painted as principled and assertive — the sibling who knows what he thinks and doesn’t blink when it’s time to take a stand.

Cast (and who plays who)

• Anthony Boyle (Say Nothing) as Arthur Guinness
• Louis Partridge (Enola Holmes) as Edward Guinness
• Emily Fairn (Black Mirror) as Anne Guinness
• Fionn O'Shea (Normal People) as Ben Guinness Jr.
• Dervla Kirwan (True Detective) as Aunt Agnes Guinness
• David Wilmot (Bodkin) as Bonnie Champion
• James Norton (King & Conqueror) as Byron Rafferty
• Jack Gleeson (Game of Thrones) as Byron Hughes
• Niamh McCormack (The Witcher) as Ellen Cochrane
• Seamus O'Hara (The Northman) as Patrick Cochrane
• Michael McElhatton (Game of Thrones) as John Potter
• Danielle Galligan (Shadow and Bone) as Lady Olivia Hedges
• Hilda Fay (The Woman in the Wall) as Sultan

Who is making it

Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) created the series and wrote every single episode. It’s produced by Kudos Film & Television (Broadchurch, Death in Paradise) and Stigma Films (This Town), with Cahal Bannon and Howard Burch producing. Executive producers include Knight, Tom Shankland, Karen Wilson, Elinor Day, Martin Haines, and Ivanna Lowell.

Directing-wise, there’s a bit of inside baseball worth noting. Knight didn’t go back to his usual Peaky collaborators. Instead, Tom Shankland handles the first five episodes and also executive produces. Shankland’s TV credits are stacked — Ripper Street, The Missing, House of Cards, The Punisher, Les Miserables, and Netflix’s The Leopard — and he previously teamed with Knight on Rogue Heroes in 2022. The final three episodes are directed by Lebanese filmmaker Mounia Akl, a London-based director who broke out with the 2011 series Beirut, I Love You and has since worked on The Responder, Boiling Point, and Do Not Disturb.

Release plan, episode count, and the binge factor

House of Guinness premieres worldwide on Netflix on Thursday, September 25, 2025. Netflix is dropping the full season at once — no split-season games like Wednesday or Stranger Things. Season 1 runs eight episodes, all written by Knight, with the first five directed by Shankland and the last three by Akl.

Expect the siblings’ personal choices to echo beyond the boardroom. Knight has said the family’s private battles carry real political weight for Ireland’s future — which is a lot to shoulder and exactly the kind of pressure-cooker that fuels a good period drama.