Peaky Blinders Creator Admits He Ditched A Tom Hardy Twist From The Movie
The recently-released Peaky Blinders movie mixed familiar faces with some exciting new additions – but there were also a couple of notable absentees from The Immortal Man, too.
One such missing character was Alfie Solomons, played by Tom Hardy.
Alfie was famously thought to have been killed off in the BBC drama’s fourth season, only to shock Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby by returning in the fifth, with the character sticking around for the sixth and final run, too.
While Tom ultimately didn’t make an appearance in The Immortal Man, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has revealed that he did consider including him in a storyline that would have really shaken things up for Tommy Shelby.
“I didn’t do it in the end, but I had an idea,” Steven told The Hollywood Reporter, before pointing out: “Ever since he was shot on the beach at Margate, you’ve only ever seen Tommy and Alfie together alone. There’s never been anyone else.”
He continued: “I thought, ‘Maybe he appears, and we realise he’s been dead all that time’. Now, I nearly did that, and I didn’t do it, but that was a thought.”
Another missing face in the film was Tommy’s brother Arthur Shelby, played by Paul Anderson, who it emerged had been killed off screen by Cillian’s character before the events of the film.
Between the end of Peaky Blinders and the production on the movie, Paul became embroiled in some personal and legal dramas that are well-documented, though Steven was adamant that this wasn’t responsible for him not being included in The Immortal Man.
During the same Hollywood Reporter interview, the screenwriter explained: “What I’ll say is that the story determines the cast, and the story was set. 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.”
He added: “In terms of Paul, all I’ll say is that he’s a fantastic actor.”
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is now streaming on Netflix.