Cillian Murphy explains why Tommy Shelby's The Immortal Man fate 'needed to happen'
Cillian Murphy has finally spoken out about Tommy Shelby’s story coming to an end with Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, explaining why it ‘needed to happen’.
Murphy has been playing Tommy for well over a decade, with the TV show’s iconic first season releasing in 2013.
In the lead up to Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, Cillian and the show’s creator Steven Knight have hinted that this would, for better or for worse, be the end of the road for the Shelby man.
The movie picks up several years after season six, taking place during the breakout of the Second World War in 1940.
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Tommy has retreated from public life, living on a boat writing a book whilst his son Duke has taken over the Peaky Blinders, running them ‘like it’s 1919’ according to Ada Shelby.
Ultimately though, he’s drawn back in and goes on a major journey over the course of the film.
Major spoilers for Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man from this point onwards
By the end of the film Tommy is the last original Shelby standing, with it being revealed that he killed Arthur and Ada having been shot by Tim Roth’s villainous Beckett.
He takes a fatal blow in the final fight however, and urges his son Duke to finish him off, with Barry Keoghan’s character shooting him as they embrace.
Many will wonder whether it was really necessary for Tommy to be killed off in the film, but according to Cillian it always had to end this way for the character.
Speaking on the official Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man podcast produced by Netflix, Cillian said: “I kind of always felt that he needed to die, it needed to happen. A lot of the show he was kind of looking for that… it feels right, the way it happened.”
Cillian has been playing Tommy for a huge portion of his life
Murphy added that when filming finished for Tommy, he was 48 and had been playing the role for 12 years, meaning that Peaky Blinders covered ¼ of his entire life.
The actor explained that him and Steven Knight had been talking about the film since the filming of season six in 2020, saying Knight had ‘always touched on these big grand Shakespearean ideas of family and betrayal.’
He went on to say: “This film deals with the idea of succession, the Duke character… the film deals with family so it felt like it should come from within when he finally leaves.”
Asked specifically about the final shot of a caravan burning after his death, Murphy said: “There’s a lot of funerals in the TV show, a lot of people die in it. There’s always been those that are sent off in the wagon and then I think it’s very elemental isn’t it?
“He’s lying on all the money which is useless. I love that last monologue over the image of the funeral, I think it’s beautifully written and kind of says a lot.”
Why is Tommy working on a book throughout The Immortal Man?
In Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man we find Shelby patriarch in hiding, working on a book instead of leading the Peaky Blinders.
This is never fully explained, but Cillian has given his view of it. Speaking in the podcast the Irish actor said: “In my head it was always meant to be given to his sons. ‘Don’t do what I did, do what I say’.
“If you think about the evolution of the character it’s been a pretty big journey.”
He went on to explain that it would have explored his life and motivations adding: “[It would explain] what the First World War did to him, then rising through the ranks of British society, becoming an MP, becoming a Sir, and then trying to distill that into some sort of coherent meaning.
“I feel like it’s been passed on to Duke and the other son [Charles Shelby].”
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is available to watch on Netflix now.
Topics: Peaky Blinders, Cillian Murphy, Netflix, TV, Film, TV and Film
Michael Slavin