Peaky Blinders’ Main New Shelby Household Recast Clarified By Creator Steven Knight

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man has confirmed a significant Shelby household recast.

Following the tip of Peaky Blinders season 6, the Shelby story will proceed in The Immortal Man. When audiences final noticed Duke Shelby in season 6, he was performed by Conrad Khan. Being Tommy Shelby’s long-lost son, Duke shortly grew to become an essential a part of the household’s future, particularly as Tommy started stepping again from direct management of the enterprise.

Nevertheless, it has been confirmed that Barry Keoghan will take over the function of Duke Shelby in The Immortal Man. The recasting comes alongside the movie’s time leap, which advances the timeline a number of years past the present’s remaining season. Talking with Leisure Weekly, Knight addressed the choice to forged Keoghan as Tommy’s son. Learn his feedback beneath:

I by no means leap on board when individuals begin saying about an actor, ‘Oh my God, he is acquired this stillness.” You begin utilizing all these phrases about an actor. However with him, it is all true. I needed him to be the son from the start, and after we knew we acquired him, he took it to a different stage. Who he’s in actual life is ideal for this. He is simply so good.

The Immortal Man will see Tommy Shelby after a time leap to 1940, as he returns to Birmingham from exile throughout World Conflict II. The Immortal Man stars Cillian Murphy, Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Sophie Rundle, Stephen Graham, Ned Dennehy, Packy Lee, Ian Peck, and Jay Lycurgo, alongside Keoghan.

Knight’s feedback make it clear that Keoghan was the best choice for the function and that the recasting was much less about changing Khan and extra about evolving the character. With the story now set within the Nineteen Forties, Duke shall be older and sure extra concerned with the Shelby empire.

Casting an actor like Keoghan, identified for his intense display screen presence in movies like Saltburn, Crime 101, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, signifies that Duke’s function within the movie shall be vital. His expertise of usually enjoying complicated and unpredictable characters might be precisely what Peaky Blinders wants because it transitions from tv to the massive display screen.

Keoghan’s Duke is being positioned as a driving power within the movie’s story. Within the trailer and early descriptions, he has seemingly taken the reins of the Peaky Blinders in Tommy’s absence. As Ada Shelby says within the trailer, “Your gypsy son is working the Peaky Blinders prefer it’s 1919 once more.” Exhibiting that Duke has utterly taken over Tommy’s gang and his former territory.

The Immortal Man can even apparently discover Duke and Tommy’s strained relationship. Whereas the movie would be the final time we see Murphy as Tommy Shelby, the franchise clearly has one eye on the long run, and Knight’s sturdy endorsement of Keoghan means that he might have a significant function within the Peaky Blinders franchise going ahead.

With The Immortal Man set to proceed the Shelby saga on a bigger scale, the recasting of Duke marks a significant second for the franchise. This might sign that Keoghan shall be main the upcoming sequel sequence Netflix is at the moment creating with Knight. Nevertheless, that is solely hypothesis, as it’s unknown if Duke Shelby will survive the occasions of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man hits choose theaters on March 6 and lands on Netflix on March 20.

Launch Date

March 6, 2026

Runtime

112 Minutes

Director

Tom Harper