The Shelby clan has somewhat gone from an underground crime family on the rise to making their business into religion. Peaky Blinders has traversed across insurmountable deaths, betrayals, clan rivalry, and loss to know the wear and tear of time. The same is also visible across the pallid screen when the actors of this acclaimed series appear now, 8 years after their first appearance in the first season.
The last we had seen of the series lead, Tommy Shelby, was when he roamed the fog-ridden landscape, haunted by the visions of Grace, his dead wife, right after the failed assassination attempt on Sir Oswald Mosley. Betrayed and on the hunt, Tommy Shelby steps into the sixth and final season for his long-awaited redemption arc.
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Peaky Blinders Cast — Character Arc Developments
- CILLIAN MURPHY aka TOMMY SHELBY: The pack leader, the brother, the son, and the patriarch. Tommy rules the Birmingham criminal gang with an iron fist and there are no lengths he wouldn’t go to if it meant saving his family. And so along the way, he mustered up quite a few politicians and gang leaders as his enemies. Now approaching another war, Tommy, who once used to fix horse races, will now find his redemption in the emotional battlefield of Season 6.
- PAUL ANDERSON aka ARTHUR SHELBY: Ever the faithful, yet dull brother, Arthur is not all faith and no mettle. The most volatile of them all, this Shelby brother has maintained a steady streak of toggling between a short-tempered volcano on the verge of erupting at any given moment to a cocaine-ridden druggie on the mean streets of Birmingham’s crime scene.
- SOPHIE RUNDLE aka ADA SHELBY: Following her first husband, Freddie’s death, Ada Shelby, the only female sibling of the Shelby clan, has moved to London. Removed from her family’s preferred business practices due to her political beliefs, Ada Shelby lives in self-imposed isolation with her two children, both of whom are fatherless.
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- HARRY KIRTON aka FINN SHELBY: The youngest Shelby brother, he has always remained on the sidelines before ultimately betraying his family by passing on the clan’s plans about the assassination attempt on Oswald Mosley to Billy Grade and consequently getting branded as a traitor. Now left out of the Shelby clan, he is no longer a trusted partisan and it remains to be seen what his role will be in the final season of Peaky Blinders.
- TOM HARDY aka ALFIE SOLOMONS: Introduced in Season 2, Alfie Solomons, the leader of the Birmingham Jewish crime syndicate, is the most entertaining character in all of the Peaky Blinders. Tom Hardy steals the show as the most terrifying and yet hilarious frenemy of Tommy Shelby. Resurrected from the dead in Season 5, he continues his alliance with the Peaky Blinders gang having found a common enemy in Mosley.
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- FINN COLE aka MICHAEL GRAY: Also introduced in Season 2, the character has been the most focused, driven, and power-hungry member of the Peaky Blinders gang. His motivation to transform the crime family from a back-street razor gang to something more representative of the next generation drives him to betray and replace Tommy for most of Season 5. This ultimately leads to his death.
Also read: 10 Most Important Deaths in Peaky Blinders
The Peaky Blinders Finale
The series creators were always transparent with their motto: Tommy always wins. So, even though haunted, traumatized, betrayed, and facing certain doom, the series is heading toward a Tommy-themed redemption arc. The final season of the beloved crime drama series will be “gothic” with “very big themes and emotions”, claims actor Cillian Murphy.
Series creator Steven Knight revealed about Season 6, “[It] will tell a different story, where Tommy Shelby—who begins as this nihilistic, looking-out only for his family person—will be redeemed, and he will become good.”
Peaky Blinders is now streaming on Netflix.
Related article: Peaky Blinders: Stephen Knight Teases Spin-Offs and Movies
