‘Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight Says More Seasons Ahead & A Ballet?

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has said that next year’s Season 5 is not the last we’ll see of the Shelby crime family on the small screen — and, he’s been approached about a spinoff ballet version of the epic gangster series. Knight was speaking during an event at the Birmingham Press Club on Friday when he made the comments. I hear talks are indeed happening with the BBC for Peaky Seasons 6 and 7, but a deal has not been finalized.

Season 4 was the period saga’s highest-rated ever and BBC Two’s most-watched drama of 2017. It recently scored Knight, who is already an Oscar nominee for 2004’s Dirty Pretty Things, his first BAFTA nomination in the Drama Writing category. Peaky is also up for Drama Series at tomorrow night’s BAFTA TV Awards.

Season 5, which has previously been mooted as the maybe-maybe-not final go-round for Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby and his clan, is due for air on BBC Two in 2019. Netflix holds U.S. rights. Anthony Byrne was recently set to direct.

Regarding more seasons, Knight told the Birmingham Press Club, “We’ve talked to Cillian Murphy and he’s all for it, and the rest of the principal cast are in for it. Murphy told me last year he was open to more, “I’ve always said as long as the writing stays as good as it is, I’m around.”

Knight also told me late last year, “The thought has long been to finish after Season 5, but the momentum and love for the thing seems to still be growing exponentially and this is making us pause before deciding finally.”

Meanwhile, Knight said he has been approached by the Rambert dance company, Britain’s oldest which gave its first performance in 1926. “I had a meeting with Rambert because they said they were interested in turning Peaky Blinders into a ballet,” Knight said, per local reports. “I don’t know where they would do it, but there was a view to premiering it here in Birmingham.” Rambert is based at London’s South Bank

There has also been talk about a West End Peaky musical and a movie. But next up, the busy Knight has feature Serenity, starring Anne Hathaway and Matthew McConaughey, releasing domestically in September. He’s also hard at work on See, the world-building future-set drama that received a straight-to-series order from Apple in January.

During the Press Club event, the Birmingham native also said he’s hoping to shoot more of the Caryn Mandabach/Tiger Aspect produced Peaky in the city and has plans for a film studio and production facility there.