Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has confirmed that Paul Anderson's character Arthur Shelby was deliberately written out of the new film, The Immortal Man. The sequel, now streaming on Netflix, follows Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) as he seeks redemption and confronts the ghosts of his past.
Arthur Shelby's fate is revealed early in the film when Tommy visits a grave bearing his brother's name. Knight told The Hollywood Reporter that the story dictated the cast, explaining: 'What I'll say is that the story determines the cast, and the story was set. I knew that Tommy needed to have done something that he couldn't forgive himself for.'
Paul Anderson, who played Arthur in all six series of the original show, spoke to LADbible about his absence. He said: 'Well, what can you do eh? It is how it is. I thought I'd just leave them to it. I think it's great. I [wasn't] very nice to people in it [the series]. But people loved me.'
The film eventually reveals that Tommy murdered Arthur in a drunken rage, strangling him during a violent struggle in a car. Tommy immediately regretted his actions, and the secret haunts him throughout the story. Anderson is one of only three actors to have appeared in every episode of the series, alongside Cillian Murphy and Sophie Rundle.
