Major spoilers for Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man are ahead! Read with caution, and stream both the show and the movie with a Netflix subscription.
When Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man premiered on Netflix’s 2026 schedule, it marked the end of Tommy Shelby’s story. In a tragic, yet fulfilling way, we got to see the iconic gangster’s final stand, and I asked Cillian Murphy about watching his character’s last moments. In response, he told me what it felt like to see Tommy die “about 500 times.”
At the end of The Immortal Man, Tommy is fatally injured by Beckett (Tim Roth) and ultimately killed by his son Duke (Barry Keoghan) in an act of mercy. Then, the film ends with Tommy’s funeral as a carriage is burned with him in it. It’s heartbreaking and beautiful. However, when I asked the Oscar-winner what it was like for him to watch it, he told me why it actually wasn’t all that emotional for him:
It's an interesting exercise, because I produced the film as well. Like, I must have watched it about 500 times, so it kind of takes the curse off it a little bit. Or, you know, it wasn't like when you see your film that you're an actor for hire, and you turn up, and you watch it the first time, it has a big impact on you. When you're looking at it over and over again, I don't know, you look at it in a very clinical kind of way.
I can totally see what he’s saying. While I’d think it’d be hard to watch a character you played for six seasons and a movie die, when you watch it enough times, the edge probably wears off. As the Oppenheimer actor said, since he’s a producer on the film, he was watching it in a “clinical” way and working to make it the best possible sequence (which paid off if you’ve seen The Immortal Man’s reviews). So, that means the emotion of it all came out of it for him personally.
However, he did note how aware he is of how gut-wrenching and emotional Tommy’s death is. Recalling how it felt to watch Barry Keoghan as Duke, as well as their other co-stars, act during that burial scene, Murphy told me:
But I was seeing it through these guys, you know, their performances around the vardo and everything, and that was very, very moving, because they're all fucking incredible actors. But you kind of see it reflected through their eyes, I suppose. And that voiceover that [Steven Knight] wrote, which was really beautiful.
The 28 Days Later star went on to say that the moment came together beautifully between what the actors were doing, the visuals surrounding them, and “that Lankum song.” “All the elements were there,” he told me. However, when he looks at it, it does not hit him in a super emotional way. As an actor and producer, he was simply viewing it from a “storytelling” perspective, as he explained:
But I was just trying to, like, look at it very much from a storytelling point of view, if you know what I mean?
I do know what he means. However, I can’t even begin to fathom what it’d feel like to watch a character I’d played for so long die on screen. But if I were a producer, had the bigger picture in mind and could remove myself a bit from the character, I think I’d be able to separate myself from the emotion of it all.
Now, with all that said, I’m happy watching this scene 500 times paid off. While we know a brand new sequel series is coming, The Immortal Man is a fantastic film that concluded Tommy’s story in a way that provided a lot of closure for this era of Peaky Blinders. So, no matter what emotions Cillian Murphy felt while watching it, I hope he’s proud of the story he’s told as this legendary character.
