Peaky Blinders Creator Stephen Knight on Ending The Immortal Man: The Challenge and Discipline Behind the Finale

Crime drama Peaky Blinders began in 2013, tracing the Shelby crime clan through a turbulent post‑First World War Birmingham and quickly became a critical and audience favorite across six seasons. The series wrapped in 2022, but the story continues in the spinoff film The Immortal Man, which is set during World War II and features Tommy Shelby alongside his son Duke (Barry Keoghan). This movie serves as the finale for this chapter of the saga, ahead of two new TV seasons that will shift the focus to a new generation in the 1950s. Yet landing the proper ending for Tommy wasn’t easy.

Stephen Knight, the show’s creator, has been vocal about resisting the urge to craft an ending that aligns with fan expectations. In discussing the film’s conclusion, he warned against asking what fans want to happen. “If you start wondering, ‘What are people expecting? What do they want?’ — that can be a trap,” Knight said. His approach is to stay disciplined and write what he believes the story needs, steering toward a natural, truthful conclusion for the characters and their journey. He emphasizes the length of the project — about 30 hours of television worth of payoff — and the importance of delivering something truly special in the ending.

So far, Knight’s method appears to be earning some early acclaim. The Immortal Man has earned a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes ahead of its Netflix debut on March 20, 2026.

Related articles offer additional Peaky context, including why Arthur Shelby isn’t in the film and how the franchise responded to the use of archival footage in a political campaign. For more film and TV insights, you can bookmark ScreenTime’s YouTube channel, where additional interviews and discussions are posted.