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21st Mar 2024

Cillian Murphy movie news we’ve all been waiting for finally confirmed

Simon Kelly

Cillian Murphy

It’s happening.

It’s been a long, long time coming but the Cillian Murphy news we’ve all been waiting for has finally been announced – he’s returning as Tommy Shelby in the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie.

The news was confirmed by series creator Steven Knight, while he was promoting his new film this week.

Fresh off the back of winning his first Oscar for Best Actor earlier this month in Christopher Nolan epic Oppenheimer, Murphy last played Shelby in 2022, after leading the series as the notorious Birmingham crime boss for six season.

Since the final episode aired, speculation has mounted over whether it would be his last time playing the iconic character.

However, once Knight confirmed he was working on the movie, Murphy had been asked by many an interviewer about whether he would return – his answer always being “if there’s more story to tell, I’ll be there.”

The rumours were confirmed by Knight at last night’s premiere of his new BBC show, This Town, with the the 64-year-old not only confirming his reunion with Murphy, but also revealing that the film will be set during WWII.

Knight said: “He is definitely returning for it. We’re shooting it in September just down the road in Digbeth.”

Cillian Murphy movie news we’ve all been waiting for finally confirmed

Last month, rumours started to fly that Murphy and Knight had a ‘secret meeting’ about the film, with one source telling The Mirror that the pair were spotted at The French House pub, in Soho, London.

“His meeting with Steven last week makes a return look all the more likely,” the source told the publication.

“They sat for over an hour together and were deep in conversation. So for Peaky fans, there’s hope he will be back.”

Speaking at a press event for Oppenheimer last year, Murphy said: “It was 10 years of my life playing that character. I think the show succeeded because the writing was so phenomenal.”

“If there’s a movie there, and if there’s more story to tell, I’ll definitely have the conversation,” the 46-year-old continued. “I think we ended really, really, well in the TV version of it.”

Bloomberg also reported last year that Netflix is working on two separate Peaky Blinders spin-off series – one set in Boston during the middle of the 20th century, a couple decades after the original show, while another would focus on Polly Gray, the matriarch of the criminal Shelby clan.

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