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Peaky Blinders Adds More Cast for Steven Knight's Postwar Shelby Era
- Damian Ali
- Jun 12
- 3 min read
L to R: Eugene Collins, Lucie Shorthouse, Cal O'Driscoll, Ned Dennehy, and Packy Lee star in the new Peaky Blinders sequel series. Image courtesy of Netflix.
Netflix and BBC have added several new actors to the next Peaky Blinders series, a post-World War II chapter that moves the Shelby family story into a Birmingham being rebuilt in concrete and steel. The series is set in the early 1950s and follows Duke Shelby, played by Jamie Bell, and Charles Shelby, played by Charlie Heaton, as a new fight for power takes shape in the city.
The newly announced cast includes Conleth Hill (Game of Thrones), Daniel Monks (All Her Fault), Samuel Bottomley (California Schemin), Arturo Muselli (Gomorrah), Eugene Collins (The Bay), Lucie Shorthouse (We Are Lady Parts), and Cal O'Driscoll (Video Nasty).
Ned Dennehy and Packy Lee will also return as Charlie Strong and Johnny Dogs, two familiar figures from the original series and the film.
Hill will play Clemmy Keeler, the patriarch of the Keeler family, whose ambitions rival the Peaky Blinders' plans for Birmingham's future. O'Driscoll plays his son, Aidan Keeler, while Monks plays Detective Inspector Bell.
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L to R: Eugene Collins, Lucie Shorthouse, Cal O'Driscoll, Ned Dennehy, and Packy Lee star in the new Peaky Blinders sequel series. Image courtesy of Netflix.
The announcement gives the clearest picture yet of the new series' power structure. At the center are Tommy Shelby's sons, Duke and Charles, who find themselves in a city filled with opportunity and danger. Duke Shelby's Peaky Blinders crew will include Eliot, played by Bottomley; Angelo, played by Muselli; Frank, played by Collins; and Kezia Lee, played by Shorthouse.
The returning presence of Charlie Strong and Johnny Dogs matters beyond nostalgia. As surviving figures from the Tommy Shelby era, they give the new ensemble a living connection to the old Peaky Blinders world. Their return also suggests that Duke and Charles are not stepping into an empty story. They are inheriting a family name, a criminal network, and the weight of everything that came before them.
Steven Knight, creator and writer of Peaky Blinders, described the series as a new chapter for the franchise. "I am thrilled that we are announcing a new era of Peaky Blinders, moving the story to postwar Birmingham in the early '50s," Knight says.
Image of Cillian Murphy, Paul Anderson, Sophie Rundle, Matthew Postlethwaite, Jeffrey Postlethwaite, and Peaky Blinders season 1 cast. Image courtesy of Netflix.
The original Peaky Blinders series began in 1919 after World War I and followed Tommy Shelby's rise through Britain's interwar years, moving through labor unrest, organized crime, Parliament, and the rise of fascism. The new series shifts that historical engine into post-World War II Birmingham, where rebuilding the city becomes its own fight for power.
Exterior view of Digbeth Loc. Studios in Birmingham’s industrial heartland, a repurposed Victorian warehouse complex now home to film and TV productions, including Peaky Blinders. Image courtesy of Netflix.
That rebuilding theme also has a real-world echo. The series is filming in and around Digbeth Loc. Studios in Birmingham, Steven Knight's production hub on Montague Street.
The studio's website describes the site as part of Birmingham's working life for generations, with former Victorian industrial buildings reimagined for film and television. That gives the new Peaky Blinders chapter a direct link between the fictional rebuilding of Birmingham and the city's modern screen-production future.
Mike Barker (The Testaments) and Anna Zackrisson (Detective Hole) will direct the series. Tim Whitby (This Town) is producing. The series is produced by Banijay UK companies Kudos (SAS Rogue Heroes) and Garrison Drama, which produced Peaky Blinders series 1-6 and Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.
L to R: Jamie Bell, Charlie Heaton, Jessica Brown Findlay, Lashana Lynch, and Lucy Karczewski star in the new Peaky Blinders sequel. Image courtesy of Netflix.
The new cast joins previously announced cast members Jessica Brown Findlay (Silo), Lashana Lynch (The Day of the Jackal), and Lucy Karczewski (Stereophonic).
A premiere date and time have not yet been announced, but Netflix confirmed the new series will debut in the U.S. and worldwide.
Peaky Blinders premiered on BBC in 2013 and became a global hit, later winning the 2018 BAFTA for Best Drama Series. For viewers who want a refresher, Netflix Tudum published a 2025 guide to eight essential Peaky Blinders episodes, aimed at both newcomers and fans getting reacquainted with the Shelby family story.
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