Cillian Murphy says Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is his final chapter as Tommy Shelby

Film Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man has hit theaters, and star Cillian Murphy has made it clear that this is where his journey as Tommy Shelby ends. Speaking to press at a London event, the Oscar winner for Oppenheimer opened up about a role he's carried for 13 years.

Getting the film made wasn't a straightforward path. Murphy explained that conversations about a feature had been going on for a long time, but the original plan was a seventh season. COVID-19 killed that idea, and the film eventually took shape from there.

The core challenge, as Murphy put it, was "to see if we could make something that would justify its existence and that would be the satisfying conclusion, and a satisfying final chapter on the whole TV show, and to try and make it in two hours as opposed to six."

The story is set in 1940, picking up seven years after season 6. Tommy Shelby has retreated into self-imposed exile after a string of devastating losses.

Back in Birmingham, his son Duke – played by Barry Keoghan – is now running the Peaky Blinders and finds himself drawn into a Nazi scheme to destabilize the British economy with millions in counterfeit notes. It's a more inward-looking story for Shelby, a man who spent the entire series outmaneuvering everyone who came at him.

The show began on BBC and built a massive international following through Netflix. Asked directly whether The Immortal Man closes the book on his time as Tommy Shelby, Murphy didn't hesitate:

"For me, for sure. I think Steven [Knight, creator] and the universe of Peaky Blinders can continue, you know, and I'm sure it will. But it's been a quarter of my life playing this character, and that's an awfully long time by anyone's standards. But a deeply satisfying one. I felt we managed to achieve something with the TV show and that each season became richer and deeper, and we never plateaued, which I think is a trick to pull off. And therefore, above all, I wanted it to be a present to the fans, like a return on their investment."

A two-season continuation has already been announced, set in 1953 and following the next generation of Peaky Blinders. Based on Murphy's comments, don't expect to see him in it.