Cillian Murphy, the acclaimed star of the BBC’s hit crime drama Peaky Blinders, recently opened up about one of the most compelling facets of his portrayal of Tommy Shelby. Since the show’s debut in 2013, Murphy has brought to life the troubled Birmingham gangster whose past and present collide in gripping fashion.
The eagerly awaited sequel film, The Immortal Man, continues Tommy’s story nearly a decade after the season six finale. In the film, Tommy returns from self-imposed exile to face challenges involving his son Erasmus, aka ‘Duke’ (played by Barry Keoghan), who now controls the Shelby family’s criminal empire.
After a theatrical release on 6th March, The Immortal Man will be available to stream on Netflix starting 20th March, marking a highly anticipated moment for fans worldwide.
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Ahead of the Netflix premiere, Murphy engaged with fans on Reddit, addressing their burning questions about Tommy’s journey. When asked if Tommy secretly harbored a “death wish,” Murphy clarified: “I don’t think he’s ever had a specific death wish. I think that his experiences in the First World War were so profoundly altering to him, to his psyche and to his belief system, that he never ever recovered and became completely unafraid of the concept of death. That is an unbelievable engine for a character, and an unbelievable engine for a writer.”
This insight sheds new light on Tommy’s complex character, whose brushes with death and moments of self-destructive behavior, including a suicide attempt at the conclusion of season five, have deeply resonated with audiences. Although his family intervened to save him—his wife Lizzie (Natasha O’Keeffe) and brother Arthur (Paul Anderson) played key roles—viewers will need to watch The Immortal Man to see if Tommy regains his will to live amid the turmoil of the Second World War.
Murphy also revealed how music plays a crucial role in immersing himself in Tommy Shelby’s world. “I’ve had an ever-rolling increasing playlist for Peaky since the beginning, really. It must be thousands of hours long. Some of that has found itself into the score and the needle drops over the years. Some of it doesn’t. Tom [Harper, director] will know this well, until you put a piece of music to picture you don’t know if it’s going to work. Some have auditioned and failed and some have auditioned and made it, and then of course there’s tons and tons of original music. Music is completely and utterly entangled and you can’t separate the two from Peaky.”
With The Immortal Man poised to be the final chapter in Tommy Shelby’s saga, fans won’t want to miss this powerful conclusion. Mark your calendars for 20th March to stream the film on Netflix, following its cinematic release in the UK.