Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has revealed some important details regarding the role of new cast member Stephen Graham. Speaking with Digital Spy, Knight explained who Stephen Graham, an actor who has proven himself to be one of movie and television's finest talents over the last few years, will portray in the sixth and final season of Peaky Blinders.

"I've always wanted him to be in it. A character was starting to develop in the Liverpool docks. And you just think, well, there can be nobody else for this character. So it's somebody who comes up against Tommy, who isn't an enemy, really."

So, it sounds like Stephen Graham will add the ever-growing roster of gray-area characters who have their own, usually perfectly justifiable reasons, for going up against Cillian Murphy’s gang leader Tommy Shelby. We have yet to see much from Stephen Graham in the footage released so far for Peaky Blinders Season 6, but audiences can no doubt be assured that the actor will provide another hugely powerful performance amongst the already impressive cast.

Following the announcement that Stephen Graham would join the world of Peaky Blinders, it was speculated that he might reprise the role of well-known gangster Al Capone, a role he played with aplomb in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. Steven Knight took the opportunity to put this idea to bed once and for all, explaining that he did not want to stray too far from the series’ focus.

"Not Al Capone – I didn't want to go west. Because it's a minefield once you go into Chicago gangsters. I refer to him last series [series four], but I didn't want to go into that."

Peaky Blinders Season 6 Will Wrap Up Some of the Story That Began Back in 2013

Debuting back in 2013, Peaky Blinders follows Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby, the dangerous leader of the Peaky Blinders, a criminal gang based in Birmingham in 1919. The fifth season of the show aired last year on BBC One and proved to be the most popular season of the show so far, bringing in an average of 7 million viewers per episode. Season 5 ended on something of a cliffhanger, with Tommy and the gang finding themselves in a precarious position following the failed assassination of Oswald Mosley. Cracks in the family have begun to form due to the ambitions of Michael, with the war between Tommy and Michael sitting at the center of Season 6.

Following the release of season 6, Peaky Blinders will continue as a movie, with Steven Knight revealing that it will include Tommy Shelby. "It's impossible to say yet. But the film – yes,” Knight revealed. The Peaky Blinders movie is expected to begin filming sometime in 2023.

Starring Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby, Paul Anderson as Arthur Shelby Jr., Tom Hardy as Alfie Solomons, Finn Cole as Michael Gray, Anya Taylor-Joy as Gina Gray, Sam Claflin as Oswald Mosley, and Stephen Graham, Peaky Blinders season 6 is scheduled to premiere on the BBC on February 27, 2022.