Image Source: TechRadar, Wikipedia

Thomas Shelby and the Peaky Blinders make one last appearance!

The BBC released the trailer for the sixth and final season of the most awaited series of period-crime-drama, ‘Peaky Blinders’on Saturday, and the trailer shows bloodshed, the rise of World War II, and a lot of gunfire, including Thomas Shelby saying, "This will be the end of it."

It was announced almost a year ago that Steven Knight’s ‘Peaky Blinders" was going to bid adieu to the audience after season six, and with the trailer already here, the audience cannot wait for the premiere of the sixth season, even though no air or premiere date has been set yet, but it is expected to be released in early 2022.

The trailer showcases actors, including the lead actor, Cillian Murphy, who plays Thomas Shelby, along with Tom Hardy, Paul Anderson, Finn Cole, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sophie Rundle, Stephen Graham, Sam Claflin, Emmett J Scanlan, etc. The fate of Aunt Polly’s character, who was played by the late actress Helen McCrory, who passed away in April 2021, is not disclosed in the trailer. The final season will also see the return of Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Esme Shelby who is Thomas Shelby’s sister-in-law and wife to John Shelby, who was killed in the previous seasons.

Speaking to Variety last year, creator Steven Knight was asked about what the audience could expect from the final season and he said, "What I’m doing with series six is continuing that struggle Tommy Shelby has in his opposition to fascism. What I wanted to do is that when Tommy Shelby came back from WWI, he was emotionally dead. He was switched off because of his experiences, and he was a nihilist, amoral, and would do anything. He had one goal, which was to accumulate money, but when he encounters fascism, something is brought back to life and he decides there is good and bad. And so that’s why he devotes his time to opposing it. And that continues in series six, and many, many other things are going to happen to Tommy that audiences will not be expecting. I think that the task of writing is more focused with each series. I’ve said this before, but I’ve always believed it’s true each time. And I believe it’s true this time: this is the best yet."

Steven Knight had previously hinted at the possibility of new "shows related" to the Peaky Blinders universe following the conclusion of the final season. In an interview with Variety last year, Academy Award nominee creator Steven Knight revealed that he is working on a Peaky Blinders film, saying, "We are in development. It’s a fully formed idea, and it has a beginning, middle, and end. And I think it’s going to be a fitting conclusion to the story told so far, but from it, there will be things I don’t really call spinoffs, but there will be other TV shows that I hope will come out of [it], that will continue to tell the story of this part of society and this family."

Caryn Mandabach, the executive producer of the show, told Deadline, "This final season of our beloved Peaky Blinders is going to be the best one yet. Steven’s uncanny ability to be prescient about world events is only matched by his ability to make Tommy Shelby the most indelible character of our times."

Helen McCrory passed away in April 2021 after battling breast cancer. Image Source: Den of Geek

Helen McCrory’s sudden passing away is going to affect a lot of the fans because, as Cillian Murphy said during his interview with The Guardian, Helen was "one of the finest actors I’ve ever worked opposite. Any material, any scene…she made it special. She could do power and vulnerability, one after the other. She was just so cool and fun, and had such compassion for everyone she met. I was kind of in awe about how she lived her life– the way she balanced her work and her family so beautifully. "

The actor also shared that Helen had not yet started filming any episodes for the sixth season before her death. Cillian said, "She would have been in series six if the pandemic hadn’t put everything on hold. We were just five days away from shooting in March 2020 when the lockdown was announced. Helen was the heart of that show, and it was hard to make it without her. Really hard. There was this huge absence on the set. We all felt it. She died while we were shooting. She was too young. You can’t help but think of all the amazing roles she would have had. "

The newly released trailer does showcase two scenes where the family is involved in a traditional 'gypsy funeral', which according to fans could be a goodbye to Aunt Polly's character. Although the funeral could also be for the assassin and Aunt Polly's fiancé Aberama Gold played by Aidan Gillen who was killed at the end of the season five. 

All five seasons of Peaky Blinders are now streaming on Netflix, BBC iPlayer!