After that epic finale, the new season starts filming soon.
The dust and gunpowder hasn’t even settled yet on Season 5 of Peaky Blinders, but the focus has already switched to the future of the Shelby family.
The show’s creator Steven Knight has frequently said that he plans on ending the show just as the first sirens of WW2 are heard. Of course, Season 5 opened up on The Wall Street Crash of 1929, so there’s almost a decade to go until France and the United Kingdom declare war on Germany.
We’re certain that Tommy can achieve an awful lot in those ten years!
In terms of Season 6, Dubliner Anthony Byrne will be returning to direct the new episodes and in doing so, he’ll become the first director to helm two different seasons of the gangster drama. In an interview with GQ, Byrne said that he’ll start work on the new season in November.
“I’m reading the scripts at the moment, which Steven is writing. I start properly on series six in early November. Then we start shooting early next year, that’s the plan,” he said.
When it comes to the plot, very little is known about the next episodes, although prior to Season 5 being released, Steven Knight told JOE that the Shelbys will continue to have dealings in the US.
When asked about the potential involvement of Al Capone and the Chicago mob, Knight said: “I’ve always not wanted to do that because I think it’s a bit of a minefield because it has been done a lot. The Americans do it well, they do their own mythology. This is our story though. Peaky is about Britain and Ireland. I never really wanted to go there (US). In Season 6 we will go west, but it will be in a different way.”
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Knight also confirmed that the character of Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin) will be returning and that the producers are currently looking to cast an actor for the role of Diana Mitford,Mosley’s second wife.
The continued presence of Mosley as a recurring antagonist in the show was always likely given his importance to British history.
In terms of real life events, Mosley served in WWI before returning home where he became one of the youngest serving Conservative MPs of the time. He then switched allegiances and joined the Labour Party.
After resigning from Labour, he went on to found the New Party. The New Party became the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in 1932.
Mosley was heavily influenced by Benito Mussolini and the wave of fascism that was spreading across Europe and he advocated anti-semitism, large rallies, and marches that were policed by his own Fascist Defence Force (nicknamed blackshirts).
After the Battle of France in May 1940, the UK government considered him too dangerous and he was interned shortly after Churchill became prime minister. The BUF was proscribed by the British Government later that year.
All in all, Tommy Shelby is definitely not done with Oswald Mosley and when Cillian Murphy talked with JOE, he was coy about what the future has in store for his character.
However, he did confirm that it’s still Knight’s intention to end the show when the first sirens for WW2 are heard.
“He always said that he sees the first sirens of the Second World War as the end of the show, he’d love to do that. We’re just so lucky to have such a gifted writer at this kind of purple patch in his career. He’s writing such beautiful and unpredictable characters and journeys and stories for us. I’m just like ‘let him off!’ Sometimes, we’ll meet and have lunch and he’ll tell me his ideas for the future and they’re always amazing. Nothing that I could have ever predicted,” said the Irish actor.
With regards to the crew that are working behind the scenes, the show’s official podcast did have a very interesting chat with two production designers that work on Peaky Blinders, Nicole Northridge and Jonnie Mead.
During a recent interview, they spoke about the scale of Season 6 and what fans can expect.
Northridge said that “it’s so exciting. Series 5 didn’t feel like the end for us, it just feels like Season 6 will be more of a continuation of five because the story is not done yet. I was lucky enough to read a couple of scripts (for Season 6) and the world does keep widening. Tommy’s reaching further and it’s just more of the same. They’re still bad boys! From what I’ve read, there are quite a few new locations,” she said.
From a visual perspective, Mead added that “it’s very exciting for me because we’re moving into the thirties. That’s obviously a fabulous time for design and we’re very excited about that.”
Jamie Glazebrook, executive producer on Peaky Blinders, also told JOE that the scale of the show will only get bigger in Season 6. However, he insisted that the real draw of the next season is the journey of the characters.
“I think that the scale of things continues to rise, which is incredible, but the real power of the new season is by going deeper into the characters. I felt that the issues that Tommy faces in Season 5 are less about someone that’s actually trying to kill him, but more about the uncertainty of working with Mosley. The challenge that Steve rises to every time is how can you be more interesting and compelling. I don’t know how he does it!”
Steven Knight was also in attendance at the recent Peaky Blinders festival that took place in Birmingham and he gave an update on where he is in the writing process for the new seasons.
“I’m writing series six at the moment. That’s almost done. Then I’m going to do series seven, then I’m looking at spin-offs, maybe a movie. It’s up to us. It’s up to the people involved,” he said.
Whatever the future has in store for the Shelby family in Season 6 of Peaky Blinders, we can’t wait.
For those Peaky Blinders fans that still want more, the show is available to Netflix users around the world (excluding Irish and British viewers) on 4 October and the first official companion to the show, By Order of the Peaky Blinders, is available to buy on 3 October from Michael O’Mara Books.
Main image via Anthony Byrne (Instagram)
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