Peaky Blinders Creator Explains Paul Anderson’s Absence From Film

This article contains spoilers for Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Movie.

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has opened up about a major absence from the recent spin-off movie The Immortal Man.

After a brief cinematic run, The Immortal Man arrived on Netflix last week, where it’s remained at the top of the platform’s chart of most-watched movies ever since.

While Cillian Murphy is joined by returnees including Sophie Rundle and Stephen Graham in the Peaky Blinders film, many fans were surprised to see that Paul Anderson did not reprise his role as Arthur Shelby in the movie.

It later emerged that Paul’s character was killed by Tommy Shelby, which Steven Knight has insisted was the only reason he was not part of Peaky Blinders’ feature-length instalment.

“The story determines the cast, and the story was set,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.

“I knew that Tommy needed to have done something that he couldn’t forgive himself for. Therefore, that’s why the plot went in that particular direction.”

“But in terms of Paul, all I’ll say is that he’s a fantastic actor,” he added, referring to the British performer, whose personal issues have been well-documented in recent years.

Following the success of The Immortal Man, Peaky Blinders fans have two more seasons of the TV show to look forward to, as was announced by the BBC last year.

While Steven Knight previously claimed it was the “plan from the beginning” to end the story “with a movie”, the new run of episodes will be set 20 years after the events of season one, focussing on a new generation of Peaky Blinders.

“I’m thrilled to be announcing this new chapter in the Peaky Blinders story,” he enthused at the time of the announcement. “Once again it will be rooted in Birmingham and will tell the story of a city rising from the ashes of the Birmingham blitz.

“The new generation of Shelbys have taken the wheel and it will be a hell of a ride.”