Netflix has unveiled the first look at Charlie Heaton as Charles Shelby, placing the Stranger Things actor at the centre of a new Peaky Blinders sequel that shifts the crime saga into post-war Birmingham and the next generation of Tommy Shelby’s family.The untitled series, developed with the BBC, will follow the Shelby clan in the early 1950s after the events of Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, the feature-length continuation that brought Cillian Murphy back as Thomas Shelby. The sequel is planned across two six-episode seasons, extending one of Britain’s most recognisable television franchises beyond its original 2013-2022 run.
Heaton, best known internationally as Jonathan Byers in Stranger Things, plays Charles Shelby, Tommy’s younger son. The character is presented as a man shaped by wartime violence, including service behind enemy lines, who has tried to separate himself from the Shelby name, the Peaky Blinders gang and the family’s appetite for power. The drama’s central tension rests on whether Charles can keep that distance as Birmingham’s reconstruction turns into a contest for money, territory and influence.
Jamie Bell leads alongside Heaton as Duke Shelby, Tommy’s eldest son. Duke, introduced in the final season of the original series and later expanded through the film storyline, is now positioned as a more ambitious and dangerous figure in the family hierarchy. The casting marks a change from the film, where Barry Keoghan appeared as Duke, with Bell now taking the role for the long-form television sequel.
The wider cast includes Jessica Brown Findlay, Lashana Lynch and newcomer Lucy Karczewski, adding further weight to a production designed to move Peaky Blinders away from a single-character vehicle and into an ensemble built around legacy, succession and the changing social order of post-war Britain. Further casting announcements are expected as production advances.
Steven Knight, who created the original series, returns as writer and producer. Cillian Murphy, whose portrayal of Tommy Shelby became the franchise’s defining image, is attached as an executive producer. The sequel is being produced by Kudos and Garrison Drama for the BBC in the UK and Netflix internationally, preserving the dual-platform model that helped the original series become a global hit.
Filming is taking place in and around Digbeth Loc. Studios in Birmingham, keeping the production rooted in the city that shaped the Shelby mythology. The setting is crucial to the new story. Birmingham in the years after the Second World War was scarred by bombing, industrial upheaval and housing shortages, while reconstruction opened fresh opportunities for builders, politicians, financiers and criminal networks. The sequel uses that landscape to reframe the Shelby family’s world around redevelopment rather than the immediate aftermath of the First World War.
The new chapter follows Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, which extended the original narrative into the Second World War and gave Tommy Shelby a final screen appearance after the series ended with its sixth season. The film brought back key figures including Ada Thorne, Arthur Shelby and Hayden Stagg while adding characters played by Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Jay Lycurgo and Barry Keoghan.
Peaky Blinders built its reputation on a blend of family drama, organised crime, class politics and stylised period detail. Its original arc traced the rise of the Shelby family from street gang to political and business power, with Tommy Shelby moving from bookmaker and war veteran to parliamentarian and national operator. The sequel appears designed to test whether the next generation inherits only the Shelby name or also the burden of violence that made it powerful.
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