A new teaser for the sixth and final season of Peaky Blinders teases the return of one of the show’s most popular characters, Tom Hardy’s captivating gang leader Alfie Solomons, as well as confirming that the series will begin streaming in early 2022. The BBC dropped the brief teaser for the continuing adventures of the Peaky Blinders, which features Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby reaching out to his sometimes enemy, sometimes ally, sometimes, friend, sometimes foe for one last time, informing him that he has written his “final act.”
Tom Hardy’s Alfie Solomons has had quite the journey since first appearing in the second season of Peaky Blinders. A violent, unpredictable, and ruthlessly intelligent criminal, the brutish, calculating presence of Alfie has become a highlight of the series thanks in large part to the vast talent of Hardy himself. The relationship between Tommy and Alfie has been a complicated one, with the pair having come to blows more than once. The fourth season seemingly saw Tommy kill Alfie off, before the end of revealed that he had in fact survived, though now sports a vicious facial scar, with Alfie declaring that he had now attained a god-like status among the criminal community. No doubt audiences cannot wait to see Tommy Shelby and Alfie Solomons light up the screen again in season 6.
Debuting back in 2013, Peaky Blinders follows Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby, the dangerous leader of the Peaky Blinders, a criminal gang based in Birmingham in 1919. The fifth season of the show aired last year on BBC One, and proved to be the most popular season of the show so far bringing in an average of 7 million viewers per episode. Throughout its run, Peaky Blinders has provided audiences with all manner of criminal action and family fallouts, receiving rave reviews for its dark and gritty atmosphere, stellar performances, and gripping story, which manages to blend fictional drama with historical happenings.
The fifth series ended with Tommy Shelby and the gang in a precarious position following the failed assassination of Oswald Mosley, with cracks in the family beginning to form due to the ambitions of Michael. The last moments of the series finale saw Tommy continuing to succumb to the mental trauma he has been suffering from since the beginning of the show, culminating with him facing down a hallucination of his dead wife while pointing a gun at his head, seemingly poised to pull the trigger.
While season 6 has been confirmed as the last, creator Steven Knight has since revealed that the hit BBC crime series will be wrapped up with a movie. Knight has also suggested that the world of Peaky Blinders could carry on beyond Tommy Shelby, provided that it is led by the right character. “In the form it is in, it is absolutely impossible for this to work without Cillian. As it grows and progresses, who knows?” he said. “There may be worlds that are part of the Peaky world that are about someone else but he is the centre around [which] everything orbits.” Could Alfie Solomons be that “someone else” and receive his own spin-off? Perhaps as a prequel series? Only time will tell.
Peaky Blinders season 6 is scheduled to be released next year.
