Peaky Blinders’ Movie Is Continuing A Cillian Murphy Trend That Defined Two Of His Best Movies

Irish actor Cillian Murphy is set to reprise his role as Tommy Shelby in the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie, which is exciting, especially because the film includes one detail that has been in two of Murphy’s best movies. From 2013 to 2022, Peaky Blinders ran on the BBC, and it is now streaming on Netflix. The historical crime show tells the story of a Birmingham mob syndicate in the years following World War I. The mob, called the Peaky Blinders, are led by the Shelby family, who are money-hungry, intelligent, and dangerously violent.

Although Peaky Blinders was due to end after its sixth season, showrunner Steven Knight revealed that the series would continue in the form of a movie for its seventh and final installment. Cillian Murphy has been confirmed as a returning cast member for the Peaky Blinders movie, along with newcomer Barry Keoghan. However, what raises anticipation even more for the Peaky Blinders movie is the fact that the movie is set during World War II. This will give the film an intense edge, and it will also pay homage to two of Murphy’s greatest films of all time.

Peaky Blinders Will Be Cillian Murphy’s Third Major WW2 Movie

Who Cillian Murphy Has Played In WW2 Movies

Now that the Peaky Blinders movie is definitely taking place during World War II, this will be Murphy’s third movie set during this time period. Back in 2017, Murphy appeared in Christopher Nolan’s World War II movie, Dunkirk. The film tells intertwining stories about the very real evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. More recently, in 2023, Murphy starred in Nolan’s other war movie, Oppenheimer. This film follows the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the inventor of the atom bomb. It will be interesting to see how Peaky Blinders incorporates the war into its story.

Despite the fact that Murphy has appeared in two (soon three) separate World War II movies, his roles are vastly different. In Dunkirk, Murphy played the role of Shivering Soldier, a nameless figure who finds refuge on a citizen’s boat during the evacuation. His story turns dark when he accidentally injures a young man. On the flip side, Murphy’s Oppenheimer never actually fought in the war, though he played a pivotal role in it by creating the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer also gives a particularly dark look at World War II. It seems likely that Peaky Blinders will do the same.

Cillian Murphy’s World War 2 Movies Are Some Of His Very Best Films

What Makes Dunkirk & Oppenheimer So Good

Another part of Murphy’s World War II movies that makes them so unique is that they are some of the actor’s very best movies. Christopher Nolan is a legendary director, and there’s a reason he has this reputation. His visuals are absolutely stunning, and his stories are intense and moving. Dunkirk earned a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and is often cited as one of the greatest World War II movies ever. Similarly, Oppenheimer made nearly $1 billion at the box office and won Murphy an Oscar for Best Actor. Both movies stand out critically and financially among Murphy’s filmography.

Dunkirk and Oppenheimer earn praise because of the ways they are different from other World War II movies. For example, neither film shows any actual battles. In Dunkirk, the soldiers are racing against the clock to leave the town before the Germans arrive. In Oppenheimer, the characters are similarly outside the war, though having a major effect on it. Despite this, Nolan still manages to make these movies fast-paced, intense, and emotional. Ultimately, these movies prove that a World War II story doesn’t need to follow a certain narrative or agenda to be good.

What The World War 2 Setting Means For The Peaky Blinders Movie

How World War I Affected Peaky Blinders

It is interesting that the Peaky Blinders movie will take place during World War II. Presumably, the war will have a large effect on the characters and the plot. Though not much is known yet about the storyline of the Peaky Blinders movie, one can assume that some characters in Peaky Blinders may go to war. Or, like in Oppenheimer, the characters may be working behind the scenes of the war. It is more than likely that Shelby and his peers will see intense physical effects from the war as well, such as bombings and raids.

On top of that, World War II may affect Peaky Blinders in the same way that World War I did. At the start of Peaky Blinders, many of the male characters had just come back from war. They saw many of their friends and comrades die violently right before their eyes. This left them with countless emotional wounds, but also the ability to kill another man without much fuss or doubt. The Peaky Blinders movie may see a similar change in how the characters act or feel because of the war going on around them.