Peaky Blinders Movie Will Reinvent Immortal Man, Director Says

With Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man now in theaters, Season 1 alum Tom Harper lays out how the big-screen chapter breaks from the series — bigger scale, a new rhythm, and a self-contained story built for cinemas.

The Peaky Blinders movie is not just a longer episode with fancier lighting. Director Tom Harper has been out explaining exactly how Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man shifts gears from the series — and why he leaned hard into a bigger, cleaner, more singular ride with Tommy Shelby front and center.

Harper on making it feel like a movie, not the seventh season

Harper — who directed three episodes back in Season 1 and more recently steered Heart of Stone — says the movie rethinks the storytelling approach the show lived on. Instead of juggling a web of side plots, it draws a tight circle around Tommy (Cillian Murphy) and sticks with him.

"It's a more singular story than the series... This is much more focused on Tommy and this particular chapter of his life... it is more cinematic in its conception."

He also points out the bump in size and texture you can feel on screen.

"Having a bit more time and money to enhance the production values is slightly different."

Translation: they took the cameras on the road. Instead of patching things in with VFX or building it all on stages, the production shot across Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Stoke, Leeds, and Bradford. It gives the whole thing a grittier, lived-in tone you cannot fake.

• Sharper focus on Tommy: fewer detours, one chapter, one man under the gun.
• Bigger canvas: more time and budget on the screen, with real locations (Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Stoke, Leeds, Bradford) instead of backlots and digital stand-ins.
• New timeline, same edge: set roughly six years after Season 6, pivoting from the series finale into a self-contained wartime story.

The story, the faces, the timing

The film lands about six years after the end of Season 6, with World War II closing in. Tommy has to save his son, Duke (Barry Keoghan), after the kid gets tangled up in a Nazi plot aimed at hammering the British economy. It is a nasty setup, and exactly the sort of high-pressure arena where Tommy tends to thrive — or burn everything down trying.

Alongside Murphy and Keoghan, the cast stacks up with Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Stephen Graham, Sophie Rundle, Ned Dennehy, and more.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is playing in theaters now and pulling strong reactions from critics and audiences. If you would rather watch it at home, it hits Netflix on March 20, 2026.