It looks like BBC Two period gangster drama Peaky Blinders is about to get a whole lot better when the much anticipated second season hits later this year. Tom Hardy will be joining the ranks for season two. The announcement was made today on the shows official Facebook page. Although little is known of Hardy’s role just yet, he is said to be playing the part of a “charismatic leader” who provides a unique opportunity to the show’s leading character Tommy Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy.
Season two of Peaky Blinders will mark the third time Hardy and Murphy have acted together, the previous two times being Christopher Nolan’s Inception and The Dark Knight Rises. It also marks a reunion of sorts with the shows creator Steven Knight who recently worked with Hardy on Locke.
2014 already looks like it’s going to be a busy year for Tom Hardy. He’s got The Drop arriving and Child 44, which is an adaptation of Tom Rob Smith’s critically acclaimed Stalin-era novel loaded with a stellar cast including the likes of Gary Oldman, Paddy Considine, Noomi Rapace, Vincent Cassel and Joel Kinnaman. Hardy joins a host of other A-list actors who aren’t afraid to gravitate towards TV at the moment and although this is likely a one-off and more of a fun project rather than a pivotal career choice (in light of his connection with Knight) it could prove to be a huge scoop for the show. He hasn’t appeared in a TV show since the 2009 mini-series The Take, based on Martina Cole’s book of the same name.
Peaky Blinders follows the Shelby brothers as they expand a criminal empire on the streets of Birmingham and beyond during the early 1920s. It also stars Paul Anderson and Sam Neill. Season two begins shooting at the end of February and should hit our screens in Autumn.
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