Peaky Blinders Season 5 has officially been a thing since the December 2017 Season 4 finale aired in the U.K., upon which the BBC confirmed that a fifth season renewal was already a done deal. Consequently, fans have been waiting nearly two years since we last left Tommy and the Shelby clan.
Of course, Peaky Blinders Season 4 reaped record ratings for its U.K. airing, on BBC Two, culminating with 3.6 million viewers tuning in for the finale. We’ll probably never know the hard figures for its U.S. performance on Netflix, due to the streaming giant’s secretiveness over those things. However, the binge habits of American audiences clearly renewed the show’s momentum.
Here’s everything we know about the fifth season of Peaky Blinders!
Peaky Blinders Season 5 Trailer
The Peaky Blinders Season 5 trailer is here! As usual, times are tough for the Shelby clan, especially with the onset of the Great Depression. However, Tommy’s elevated status puts him in a new kind of danger, taking him into the snake pit of Parliament as an MP, where he meets Oswald Mosley, a (fact-based) mustachioed politician with dangerously grandiose designs for the country, both for him and the Peaky Blinders.
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Peaky Blinders Season 5 Release Date
Peaky Blinders Season 5 will premiere in the U.K. on Sunday, August 25 at 9 p.m. on BBC One (the show’s debut on the channel.) It is expected to hit Netflix in the U.S., but there’s no release date yet on that front.
For the sake of context, Season 4 premiered on BBC Two in the U.K. on November 15, 2017 for a weekly episodic run. It arrived on Netflix in the U.S. in full bingeable form on December 21, 2017.
Peaky Blinders Season 5 Plot
A handful of new plot details were revealed in an interview with creator Steven Knight and the cast by Deadline. Here are the fine points:
Season 5 will bear the recurring theme of a sobering from the Roaring Twenties. According to Knight, “We’ve had the 20s, the hedonism, the cocaine and the booze. The Wall Street crash happened, and it was the beginning of the hangover through the 30s. What I’m planting in this to pick up in Seasons 6 and [the unconfirmed] 7, amongst many other things, is that fascism is afoot.”
While Tommy’s dual role as crime family godfather and MP will utilize his natural talents (since politics is essentially a gang war), it also presents unique internal challenges. As Knight puts it, “In other seasons, he’s always faced a nemesis, and in this one he has some powerful enemies, but the biggest one is himself.” Indeed, the personal spiral that we’ve seen in Season 4 will metastasize this year.
Polly (Helen McCrory), like Tommy, is trying to pull away from the family’s criminal past. However, McCrory says that Polly will be in a good place, notably over her new romance with Aberama Gold (Aidan Gillen). McCrory explains that Polly is “looking slightly more respectable on the outside. She’s “happy in the 20s as an alley cat and becomes completely alive again.” However, “the family is suffering because of how much money is being lost and who’s pointing the finger, who is going to take responsibility, whose side will Polly choose as the person who keeps the family together.” Indeed, her relationship with Tommy “that will be most tested in Season 5.”
As for Polly’s son, Michael Gray (Finn Cole), who was exiled to the U.S. in Detroit – on Tommy’s orders – after going violently full-Shelby on some of the family’s enemies at the end of Season 4, he will return to Birmingham with an American wife, Jean (Anya Taylor-Joy). Cole explains that Michael will “assert his place in the family and do things right, but with the American way. It’s a new strategy, a new approach, a new world kicking in. And it probably will rub up against the family in a dodgy way.” Moreover, Jean will be a unique source of tension with the Shelby clan since, “The family do not like outsiders, so that’s a contentious subject.” Knight adds that “the simmering tension that’s always been there between Michael and Tommy continues to simmer, but up to a boil.”
Creator/writer Steven Knight first provided a poignant plot synopsis, via Deadline, which also contained confirmation of the cast and the very first image (seen directly above). As Knight dished on the plot:
“The story of the Peaky Blinders and of the Shelby family gets woven into the political fabric of Britain and Europe as the 1920s end and the 30s begin. Tommy Shelby faces the darkest force he has ever faced and his struggle is as relevant today as it was then.”
Knight’s description reflects the astounding evolution of the series, having started the odyssey of WWI veteran-turned-seedy-entrepreneur Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) and his family through the lens of a brutal, soot-strewn early-20th century gangster drama, dodging his rivals and the law. Indeed, Season 5 seems to be an indictment of a social climate that’s given rise to fascism.
Season 5 will begin with Tommy in his most dangerous undertaking yet, politics, serving as an MP. As the report details further revealed, he’ll be dealing with the turmoil of the 1929 crash while navigating the political field, notably when he is approached by “a charismatic politician with a bold vision for Britain” (Claflin’s Oswald Mosley), yielding a response that will affect the future of his family and, possibly, the entire nation.
Indeed, recent seasons have seen Tommy’s crimson-soaked path towards a place in the legitimate business world come to apparent fruition as the hat-razor-wielding Peaky Blinders gang have – while suffering significant losses – become the backbone of Shelby Company, Ltd., a venture with diverse stakes in the Birmingham, England stomping grounds that they one violently ruled. However, the Shelby family will soon face an enemy that they can’t kill or outmaneuver: The Great Depression; a ripe atmosphere for radical politics.
Peaky Blinders Season 5 Cast and Crew
Anthony Byrne serves as director this season. He comes in with TV experience from Ripper Street, Butterfly, The Last Kingdom, Mr Selfridge and Silent Witness as well as films In Darkness and Love/Hate. He is also directing an episode of BBC/HBO’s His Dark Materials for its preemptively ordered second season.
Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games sequels, Me Before You) is a major newcomer for the fifth season cast, set to play historically-based fascist politician Oswald Mosely.
He is joined by the following group of newcomers: Anya Taylor-Joy, Emmett J Scanlan, Brian Gleeson, Neil Maskell, Kate Dickie, Daryl McCormack, Cosmo Jarvis, Elliot Cowan, Charlene McKenna and Andrew Koji.
Besides obvious personnel in primary trio Cillian Murphy, Helen McCrory and Paul Anderson, the cast consists of Sophie Rundle, Finn Cole, Kate Phillips, Natasha O’Keefe, Aidan Gillen, Charlie Murphy, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Harry Kirton, Packy Lee, Ned Dennehy, Ian Peck and Benjamin Zephaniah.
The fifth season will also see Anna Calvi join as composer.
Peaky Blinders Season 6 and 7?
Pertinent to its former ratings woes, Peaky Blinders has long been rumored to be a series that’s imminently set to wrap things up, and the buildup to Season 5 has been no exception. However, according to the latest rumblings from creator Steven Knight, Peaky Blinders Season 5 may not (as rumors constantly suggest,) be the final season after all, with deals (not yet finalized,) in the works for Seasons 6 and 7… and a ballet spinoff. (Yes, you read that right, a Peaky Blinders ballet!)
As Knight recently told the Birmingham Press Club (via Deadline,) regarding the possibility of the show continuing on into Seasons 6 and 7:
“We’ve talked to Cillian Murphy and he’s all for it, and the rest of the principal cast are in for it.”
The comment reaffirms what Knight told the outlet in late 2017, stating:
“I’ve always said as long as the writing stays as good as it is, I’m around.” Adding, “The thought has long been to finish after Season 5, but the momentum and love for the thing seems to still be growing exponentially and this is making us pause before deciding finally.”
As for the surreal concept of a Peaky Blinders ballet adaptation, Knight (who, last year, also toyed around with ideas for a Peaky Blinders musical,) confirms that he’s met with London’s South Bank-based, 1926-launched, Rambert dance company.
“I had a meeting with Rambert because they said they were interested in turning Peaky Blinders into a ballet,” Knight said, per local reports. “I don’t know where they would do it, but there was a view to premiering it here in Birmingham.”
More on Peaky Blinders Season 5 (and potentially Seasons 6 and 7,) as we have it.
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Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.