Season 6 of Peaky Blinders was released a few months ago in the United Kingdom, but in Spain, we have had to wait a bit to enjoy the final stretch of the famous British series about the Birmingham gang. Fortunately, the debut of the sixth installment of the fiction is just around the corner on Netflix and this Friday, June 10, we will welcome all six of its episodes. And we bet that most fans won’t give it too much rest and will devour it in a true marathon. However, the outcome of season 6 of Peaky Blinders we do not have to take as the outcome of the series since its creator Steven Knight has made it very clear that the outcome of the story will come in the form of a feature film and on the big screen.

After six seasons, nine years and 36 episodes of experience, no one in their right mind would deny that an important part of the series becoming a real success around the world is due to its protagonist, Cillian Murphy, who is in charge of interpreting Peaky Blinders leader Tommy Shelby. However, this characteristic and key role in Murphy’s professional career almost ended up in the hands of a very different actor. And then we wouldn’t have known it, but now we do: It would have been a mistake.

The one chosen at first had been Jason Statham, an extremely famous actor closely related to action movies and whom we quickly recognize at first glance due to his time in well-known titles such as the Fast & Furious and The Transporter franchises, or the tapes from Guy Ritchie Lock & Stock or Snatch, Pigs and Diamonds.

“I met them both in Los Angeles to talk about the role and I chose Jason,” Knight acknowledged in an interview with Esquire in 2020 and to the surprise of many.“One of the reasons was because physically in the room, Jason is Jason. Cillian, when you meet him, he’s not Tommy, obviously, but I was stupid enough not to understand that.”

And then what happened? Well, Cillian Murphy dared to send him her message that would make him change his mind:

He sent me a text message saying, ‘Remember, I’m an actor,’ which is absolutely the thing, because he can transform himself. If you meet him on the street he is a totally different human being

So while Steven Knight initially gravitated toward Jason Statham because he was a physical fit for the role, Cillian Murphy’s persuasive message changed his mind and gave him the chance to show off his acting chops. And his decision certainly worked.

Since Murphy began playing the leader of the Peaky Blinders, the series has grown in popularity and his work has been widely and deservedly praised, but at the same time, the plots of the series have shown that the casting of Cillian as Tommy Shelby was the most successful if we take into account other facets of the character.

Of course, it’s easy to say that now and resist imagining Jason Statham as Tommy Shelby when the character has his Cillian Murphy-faced image so entrenched in our minds. And the reality is that Statham is a wonderful actor and very good at what he does. However, although the interpreter has carved out a successful career as an action hero, he has not yet explored too many other registers and more specifically the vulnerability and nuances that Cillian Murphy brings to Tommy Shelby. Although perhaps it would have been the best opportunity to be a real surprise.

Murphy perfectly embodies the balance between Tommy’s calculating brutality and a more laid-back exterior that makes him such a charismatic figure to those around him and the audience. But in addition, and the sixth season will be a clear example of this, his mental state has been deteriorating little by little and has given us a more vulnerable and sensitive image of the character, tormented by the various events. A challenge to which Murphy has masterfully responded but in which he finds it hard to imagine Statham.

Peaky Blinders season 6 will premiere on June 10 in full on Netflix.