Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight was adamant that World War II would mark a natural finishing point for the series. Back in 2019, he told a masterclass in Cannes that he planned to wrap it all up by the seventh season, with Tommy Shelby at the end of his long redemption arc and Britain on the brink of another bloody conflict. But plans change.

Now, in a new interview with Empire, the Peaky writer-director has revealed that he’ll be looking to carry the story through the war, and even cover events after it. Of course, the ‘seventh series’ is now expected to take the form of a full-length movie, but the 62-year-old has potentially opened the door to a TV spin-off.

“It was always Britain between the wars – how the lesson from one war was not learned and was repeated,” he told the magazine. “It’s also the end of empire: we enter the Second World War and by the end of it, there is no empire, really.

london, england november 21 writer steven knight attends the uk premiere of allied at odeon leicester square on november 21, 2016 in london, england photo by luca teuchmannwireimage
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“But I… have revised the scope of what it is. It will now go into and beyond the Second World War. Because I just think the energy that is out there in the world for this, I want to keep it going, and I want to see how this can progress beyond that.”

So what does that mean for season six? It’s hard to know, but it's probably bad news for Tommy Shelby.

Back when a seventh season was in the offing, Knight revealed that Tommy would have “become good” by the end of it. Whether he planned to fight for his country wasn’t clear, and his position as a politician offered an out for a man who had been so badly traumatised by his experiences in World War I. Whatever the case may be, Knight said that season seven would mark the point where “Tommy Shelby – who begins as this nihilistic, looking-out only for his family person – will be redeemed.”

But Tommy will surely not have found peace by the end of season six. His assassination attempt on British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Moseley has failed, and his battles are far from over. Will the series still end with war looming? Is it the right decision? And what does fate hold in store for the Shelby family?

Only Steven Knight and the Peaky team know, but he's not too sure what will happen after that.

“I think of this sixth series as the end of the beginning," he told Empire.

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen until I get to writing.

“The way I tend to work is not to plan, and I think if I did plan, I wouldn’t be able to do it. Just sit at the keyboard and if you know the characters well enough, let ‘em loose and see what they say to each other. Let the dialogue guide the plot.”