One of 2026’s most anticipated movies is available to watch now

Here's our verdict on the star-studded new crime drama.

The film takes place in 1940, six years after the events of the series. WWI veteran turned gangster and politician Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) has turned his back on Birmingham and the rest of the world.

His PTSD from the war and his grief over losing several of his members have intensified. As such, he has become a hermit, living in a secluded country manor, his solitude only broken by the occasional visit of his cousin, Johnny Dogs (a funny, underutilised Packy Lee), who runs errands for him.

Tommy’s self-imposed exile from the Birmingham criminal underworld has left a power vacuum that has been filled by none other than his estranged son, Duke Shelby (Barry Keoghan).

Some of Tommy’s traits are evident in Duke. He’s stylish, intimidating and tough. That said, perhaps because he didn’t have Tommy or another consistent family presence growing up, Duke lacks his father’s moral compass or intelligence.

So, when a British Nazi named Beckett (Tim Roth) appears in The Garrison pub, now run by Duke, to offer the young gangster tens of millions of pounds to perform a treasonous act against the UK, he accepts.

Persuaded by his sister, Ada (Sophie Rundle), and Duke’s aunt, Kaulo (Rebecca Ferguson), Tommy returns to Birmingham to stop Beckett and Duke.

The Immortal Man is a lot like the film spin-off to The Sopranos, The Many Saints of Newark.

On the positive side, it is exciting to see a lavish and epic-feeling period gangster drama with big stars get released, particularly at a time when there are fewer mid-budget movies aimed at adults being made.

As usual, Murphy is effortlessly commanding. Keoghan is great casting as his character’s son, bringing a live-wire, if deliberately less refined quality to Duke. If you ever wanted to see the two Irish actors recreate the extended fight scene between Keith David and Roddy Piper from John Carpenter’s They Live, but in a muddy pigsty, this is the movie for you.

Newcomer to the franchise, Tim Roth is the real standout, though. The film capitalises on the actor’s innate ability to radiate villainy, even while maintaining a cheery demeanour.

Plus, just like Peaky Blinders, the anachronistic soundtrack brings an energy to proceedings, even as the story feels solemn and almost elegiac from the outset. In the same way that the new Wuthering Heights adaptation uses Charli XCX songs, The Immortal Man deploys new and classic tracks from Grian Chatten and his band Fontaines D.C.

Akin to The Sopranos’ creator David Chase’s script for The Many Saints of Newark, one imagines that Steven Knight - creator of Peaky Blinders and The Immortal Man’s screenplay writer - was excited by the concept of taking the characters from the show and putting them in a new historical context.

For instance, Beckett’s plan, which involves Nazi Germany trying to flood the UK with counterfeit British banknotes in an effort to crash their economy, is based on real-life events. 

Knight is also clearly not done with Peaky Blinders. There are two new spin-off shows on the way, information which makes The Immortal Man and the Duke/Tommy plot-line feel like a bridge between the original series and what’s to come.

That said, like The Many Saints of Newark, The Immortal Man feels like six episodes of TV plot crammed into a two-hour film runtime, which creates issues regarding character and pacing.

Huge reveals and events, involving characters that fans of Peaky Blinders have been following for years, feel glossed over. Redemption arcs come across as unearned. Certain cast members, both new (such as Jay Lycurgo and Rebecca Ferguson) and back from the show (like Stephen Graham), don’t get much time to leave an impression. There are also several actors from the series you’d expect to make an appearance in the movie, but do not.

Also, Tommy Shelby, on paper, is quite an unbelievable character. He’s presented as almost half-man, half-myth. Most men want to be him. Most women want to be with him. He’s almost supernaturally fearless and intelligent, often ten steps ahead of anyone who crosses him. In fact, Knight presents him as a character whose near-death experiences in WWI have left him with some new insight into human behaviour and life.

Yet, a hugely gifted actor like Cillian Murphy, over the course of 30+ episodes of Peaky Blinders, made such an unbelievable character feel real, often through quieter and more nuanced moments. This becomes a far greater challenge in The Immortal Man, where there’s less time for introspection amidst the busy plot, leaving Tommy feeling slightly more difficult to empathise with.

As such, what should be an epic conclusion to a grand saga winds up more akin to a hurried denouement. Maybe stripping back The Immortal Man to the more personal Duke/Tommy plot (à la the Breaking Bad film El Camino), or just sticking to the WWII adventure story, would have resulted in a more concise movie.

That said, if the choice was between no new Peaky Blinders or The Immortal Man, we’d still take the latter.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is in select cinemas now. It will land on Netflix on March 20, 2026.