The only Peaky Blinders recap you need before The Immortal Man and the upcoming sequel show

By the order of the Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight has announced a two-season sequel series to his critically acclaimed 2013 gangster saga, based on the real-life Birmingham gang of the 1880s. Knight's period drama series concluded after six intense seasons in 2022, following which a feature film titled The Immortal Man was announced, set for a 2026 release. To everyone's surprise, Knight announced that the world is not done with the Shelbys yet. The sequel series will be set after the events of the film, in 1958 Britain.

Peaky Blinders Season 1 opens in the aftermath of WWI in Birmingham and is focused on the Shelby family, led by their leader, Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy). Other members of the Shelby family include Arthur (the eldest son), John and Ada (Tommy's siblings) and Aunt Polly, Tommy's confidante and the Shelby matriarch. Season 2 also introduced Michael Gray, Aunt Polly's biological son, who was taken away from her in childhood.

Throughout six seasons of this criminal saga, the Shelbys faced many fictional and real-life foes and struggled to expand their empire to new heights.

Here is a quick recap to prepare you before The Immortal Man and the upcoming sequel show.

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Peaky Blinders Seasons 1-2: Tommy Shelby expands his empire in Birmingham

Peaky Blinders Season 1 began with the arrival of Inspector Chester Campbell in Birmingham, who was sent to retrieve a stolen gun shipment by Winston Churchill. They believed the weapons could turn deadly if they fell into the wrong hands, ie, IRA, and Campbell was tasked to retrieve them. Tommy saw this as a way to expand the Shelby empire, even while Aunt Polly warned him against it. Additionally, Campbell also planted a young woman named Grace as his spy who pretended to be a barmaid and started working at the local pub. While Grace was brought in to spy on the Shelbys, she ended up falling in love with Tommy, but they were parted in the Peaky Blinders Season 1 finale.

The sophomore outing of Knight's gangster saga continued to feature Campbell as the big bad, who returned with a personal vendetta against Tommy. Campbell harboured romantic feelings for Grace, and since she chose Tommy, Campbell was out for his blood. In the iconic Peaky Blinders Season 2 finale, Aunt Polly finally takes her revenge on Campbell and kills him. However, the corrupt Inspector had already planned Tommy's fate and he was taken by some men to be executed. While Tommy Shelby was literally standing in his own grave and waiting to be executed, he was saved and asked to expect a call from Winston Churchill. Additionally, Grace re-entered his life, announcing she is having his baby.

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Tommy lost Grace in Peaky Blinders Season 3

After two seasons of revenge, blood and deceit, Peaky Blinders Season 3 opened with happiness for Tommy. Set nearly two years after their marriage, the third season opened with the couple happily married and raising their son, Charles. However, trouble finds them when the Shelbys disapprove of Lizzie’s relationship with Angel Changretta. The Changrettas are an Italian mafia family and the Shelbys come under their radar when they beat Angel and burn his restaurant. In revenge, Angel's father, Vincente, orders a hitman to shoot Tommy, but Grace takes the fatal bullet and dies.

Grace's death was a turning point in Tommy Shelby's life in Peaky Blinders Season 3. He is overcome by guilt and regret, blames himself for Grace's death and spirals out of control.

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Tommy Shelby pivots to politics in Peaky Blinders Season 5

After Grace's death, Luca Changretta declared his vendetta against the Shelbys. The Italian mafia, who became the primary antagonist in Peaky Blinders Season 4, managed to take out John Shelby and the Golden trio was down by two.

While Arthur struggled with John's death and became highly dependent on alcohol, Tommy pivoted to politics and was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham South, representing the Labour Party. Tommy wanted to expand the Shelby empire in politics and go legit to achieve social mobility for his family. However, Fascist leader Oswald Mosley directly opposed his ideals and became the big bad in Peaky Blinders Seasons 5 and 6. The show focused on the rise of Fascism in the latter two seasons through the real-life figure of Mosley. While Birmingham was gearing up for the onset of Fascism, trouble was brewing in the Shelby family because of Michael and his wife, Gina, who wanted to usurp the Shelby empire from the Birmingham gangster.

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What happened in the Peaky Blinders series finale?

After Tommy's assassination plan for Oswald Mosley failed in Season 5, he discovered that he contracted tuberculoma from his recently deceased daughter, Ruby and his days are numbered. This breaks Tommy Shelby emotionally and mentally and he spends the majority of the last season making sense of his death. However, a chance vision of Ruby leads him to an epiphany and he discovers that his doctor is in cahoots with Oswald Mosley and his diagnosis was a hoax, to make him insane and kill himself.

Elsewhere, Michael transformed into a complete antagonist and planned to kill his cousin by blowing up his car. However, Tommy Shelby was ahead of him and instead, fatally shoots him in the Peaky Blinders Season 6 finale.

The final moments of the series saw Tommy confronting his doctor:

“I’m guessing that all you people decided that the only person who could ever kill Thomas Shelby is Thomas Shelby himself. I am back.”

While he did not kill his doctor, he rode off into the sunset on his horse. Since the world believes the Birmingham leader is dead, there is a world of possibilities and opportunities waiting for him in The Immortal Man.

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