The eagerly anticipated Peaky Blinders movie, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, hit theaters this past weekend ahead of hits arrival on Netflix March 20th but while fans were excited to see the return of Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby along with newcomers Rebecca Ferguson, Barry Keoghan, and Tim Roth, there were some things that fans certainly didn’t expect — including a fan-favorite cast member who didn’t return for the film. Now, Paul Anderson is opening up about his absence as Arthur Shelby.
While much of the Peaky Blinders cast returned for the film, which is set in Birmingham 1940 and sees Tommy Shelby “driven back from a self-imposed exile to face his most destructive reckoning yet,” Anderson is notably absent. In a recent interview, Anderson opens up about it, saying that he thinks it’s “great” how things were handled in the film.
“Well, what can you do eh? It is how it is. I thought I’d just leave them to it,’ he said before revealing his thoughts on what happens to Arthur.
“I think it’s great,” he said. “I mean, it’s such a powerful thing to do. It’s something you don’t see on TV.”
What Happens to Arthur in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man?
Without getting into spoiler territory too much, Arthur really only exists as part of Tommy’s guilty conscience in the movie. While this might be a disappointment for fans, Anderson says it’s not really a surprise — but he was surprised at how much fans love his character.
“Everyone thought, well, everyone knows Arthur’s gonna die,” he said. “I was quite surprised, I [Arthur] was quite nasty sometimes, I wasn’t very nice to people in it. But people loved me.”
Of course, even with Arthur’s fate being what it is, that doesn’t necessarily mean his character’s legacy ends with the movie, either. There is a new Peaky Blinders series in the works — and Anderson suggests that Arthur could be present in some fashion.
“They plan to do another two seasons but I don’t know if he wants to do it with a younger generation or a new team of Peaky Blinders,” he said. “What I mean by that is, Tommy will still be there and my memory — if I’m dead — will still be in it.”
Peaky Blinders Almost Ended Very Differently
While the update on Anderson’s absence from The Immortal Man is interesting, it isn’t the only interesting update that the actor had about the popular series. Anderson also revealed that Peaky Blinders almost had a very different series ending, but there was one key death that changed everything and lead to The Immortal Man.
As fans recall, Peaky Blinders was set just as the First World War had come to an end and, according to Anderson, series creator Steven Knight had envisioned something of a bookend moment with the ending of the series happening as the Second World War was starting.
“He wanted it with Joe (who played John Shelby], Cillian and I. We hear the bells, and the siren rings out for the Second World War,” Anderson said. “Off go our children to fight — that was how he wanted to end it. He [Knight] explained it all to me, the cameras were gonna pan up, over Birmingham, you’d hear the sirens, the ‘we’re at war with Germany’ and that’s it. That’s how it was gonna end but a lot’s happened since then.”
That “a lot” includes the death of John Shelby in the opening of season four after Cole left Peaky Blinders in season three. That change — the death of one of the major characters — changed everything for the planned ending. As a result, the story continues with The Immortal Man and thus far, the film is getting solid reviews. It currently sits at 92% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie will arrive on Netflix March 20th.
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