The following contains major spoilers for Peaky Blinders: The Immortal ManThere’s no denying that Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man is an emotional journey. A feature film that also serves as both a grand finale to six years of a beloved television series and something like a bridge to its future, it’s a movie that must serve many masters — and answer many questions. It doesn’t always succeed at balancing its many narrative aims, but it’s a compelling ride from start to finish, thanks in no small part to Cillian Murphy’s tremendous performance at its center.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});But with Murphy’s Tommy Shelby officially out of the picture — for real this time, not in the ambiguous way that the Season 6 finale once implied — it does mean that it’s time to start thinking about creator Steven Knight’s next project, an (at least!) two season extension of the Peaky Blinders television series that aims to continue the story of the Shelby clan. Who it will focus on and what kind of stories it will tell are questions we simply don’t have answers to at the moment, but it’s possible to make a few educated guesses.A New Generation of ShelbysKnight’s been fairly adamant that the sequel series will be something of a fresh start, set in a new time period and following the story of a “new generation of Shelbys”. It’s a smart and fairly necessary move that not only gets the franchise out from under the shadow of Murphy’s long-suffering Tommy but offers a neat solution to the fact that many of the main characters from the original series are now dead. The Peaky Blinders sequel/spin-off/continuation — no one’s really sure how to label this just yet — will be set in 1950s Birmingham, a city that’s still trying to rebuild itself after the devastation of the Blitz. As in any period of reconstruction, there’s plenty of money to be made and opportunity to be had, particularly for an up-and-coming group of young men who are willing to break some rules along the way. But with its story set over a decade after the events of The Immortal Man, it’s not entirely clear who we’ll be watching do it.Let’s face it, the Shelby family, as a whole, has been fairly decimated recently. Tommy, Arthur, Ada, John, and Polly are all dead. Finn has been excommunicated from the family and might as well be dead. Lizzie, Esme, and Linda are all MIA, and most of their kids are too. Technically, Tommy’s second son Charles appears to return for his father’s funeral, we only ever see the character from a distance (and he’s not even identified directly, just wearing a military uniform). In theory, the sequel could focus on any one of the Shelby siblings’ offspring — perhaps Charles returns to Birmingham after the war, or Arthur’s son Billly somehow finds out who was really responsible for his father’s death and causes another intra-family rift. The brief glances of the two seem to indicate that Ada’s son Karl has finally stopped being such a racist jerk towards his younger sister Elizabeth. And, let’s not forget, John Shelby had seven kids, all of whom, last we heard, were being raised among their mother’s gypsy people. None of these are necessarily exciting options, but in large part that’s because Peaky Blinders was generally so busy with the larger family’s exploits that it didn’t have time to give characters who were relatively young children much of anything like depth. (Or personalities, come to that.) A sequel could certainly correct that, while honoring the show’s roots at the same time But What About Duke?The ending of The Immortal Man firmly establishes Tommy’s illegitimate son Duke as his successor within the world of the show, leaving him in charge of both the Peaky Blinders and the heir apparent to his “Rom Baro” gypsy title. Heck, Duke even performs an uncomfortable act of mercy on his critically injured father’s behalf, shooting Tommy (with a bullet marked for him!) to ease his passage into the next life rather than allowing him to suffer. He’s far and away the most obvious pick to succeed Tommy as the franchise’s next main character, and that before we really get into his lifetime of daddy issues, his guilt over his involvement in both his father’s and his aunt’s deaths, and the fact that he’s already got a built-in Polly figure of his own in Kaulo. But does that mean the spin-off will actually be about him?Honestly, it could probably go either way. It’s unlikely that star Barry Keoghan wants to do a TV series that would require as much of a time commitment as Peaky Blinders does, but the decade-plus time jump means that Duke could be easily be recast with a slightly older actor to portray his middle age. In the wake of The Immortal Man’s release, Knight has finally admitted that Duke will “feature” in the franchise’s future, but that’s the sort of cagey showrunner-style language that often ends up equaling a guest spot or two rather than a major leading role. But it’s hard to think of another character that’s better suited for it or that draws a firmer line between the Peaky Blinders that have come before and whatever this new incarnation will look like. The post How Does The Immortal Man Lead Into the Peaky Blinders Sequel? appeared first on Den of Geek.