Jamie Bell Leads The Next Generation In New ‘Peaky Blinders’ Series

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‘Peaky Blinders’ is officially moving into a new era, and Steven Knight looks to be wasting no time throwing the Shelby legacy straight back into the fire.

The BBC and Netflix have revealed the first look at Jamie Bell (All of Us Strangers, Rocketman) as Duke Shelby, with the new chapter of the gangster saga shifting into post-war Birmingham in the early 1950s. Set ten years after Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, the new story puts Tommy Shelby’s eldest son front and centre as the family name continues into a far more fragile, and potentially even more dangerous, world.

Bell’s Duke is described as older, wiser, more ambitious, and very much more dangerous, which feels about right for anyone inheriting the Shelby bloodline. The first image certainly sells that idea too, with Duke striding through a dim industrial setting in full Shelby style, looking like he’s already deciding whose day he’s about to ruin.

Alongside Bell, Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things, Industry), Jessica Brown Findlay (Silo, The Flatshare), Lashana Lynch (The Day of the Jackal, No Time to Die), and Lucy Karczewski (Stereophonic) have all been confirmed for the cast, although details of their roles are being kept under wraps for now. That is a pretty strong line-up already, and with Knight teasing that more announcements are still to come, it sounds like this next phase is going to be every bit as stacked as fans would hope.

Knight said: “I am thrilled that we are announcing a new era of Peaky Blinders, moving the story to post-war Birmingham in the early 50s. We are incredibly fortunate to have Jamie Bell taking the role of Tommy Shelby’s oldest son, Duke, and to have Charlie Heaton also leading the cast. There are more exciting cast announcements to come, and Peaky is on the road again.”

Produced by Banijay UK’s Kudos and Garrison Drama, the two new series are filming in and around Digbeth Loc. Studios in Birmingham, keeping the production rooted in the city that helped define the original show. The project is also the first commission to come through the BBC’s new partnership agreement with the West Midlands Combined Authority and Create Central, aimed at growing production investment in the region.

That all gives this continuation a nice sense of scale. This is not being treated as a nostalgic afterthought or a quick franchise extension. It feels like a deliberate attempt to build the next chapter of the Shelby story with fresh faces, a new time period, and the weight of everything that came before hanging over it.

And frankly, after Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man stormed out of the gate and held Netflix’s global number one film spot for two weeks, it is hardly surprising that Knight and company are pressing on. The original series had already become a worldwide phenomenon, but the film showed there was still plenty of appetite for more stories from this world. Moving the action into 1950s Birmingham also opens the door to a very different kind of power struggle, one built around rebuilding, opportunity, and the same old Shelby instinct for turning chaos into business.

There is no confirmed premiere date yet, but with two six-episode series already in the works, this looks like a major new phase for one of the BBC’s biggest drama brands.

‘Peaky Blinders’ Series 7 does not yet have a premiere date but will air on BBC iPlayer and BBC One in the UK. If you want to keep track of this or any other shows, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when it gets a UK premiere date. Visit Never Miss.