Netflix's Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man sequel movie has left many fans puzzled about what actually happened to Arthur Shelby. The Immortal Man brought back several members of the Shelby clan, including Tommy (Cillian Murphy), Ada (Sophie Rundle), and Duke (Barry Keoghan). The Netflix flick's strangest absentee is Arthur Shelby (Paul Anderson), who was one of the lucky few to survive the six seasons of Peaky Blinders.
The actor behind Arthur, Paul Anderson, seemed accepting of his absence from The Immortal Man in an interview with LadBible, saying, "It is how it is:"
"Well, what can you do eh? It is how it is. I thought I’d just leave them to it."
The Peaky Blinders sequel reveals early on that Arthur has passed away, as Tommy visits his grave outside his rural estate. The tombstone confirms that the eldest Shelby brother died in 1938 at 43 years old, placing his death four years after Season 6 and two years before The Immortal Man.
The truth about how Arthur died unravels throughout The Immortal Man, as Tommy originally tells Rebecca Ferguson's Kaulo that his brother committed suicide. That appears to be the narrative that has been spread in general, as Kaulo says, "everybody believes that he took his own life on the bridge."
Either by Tommy's doing or false rumors, the people of Birmingham had come to believe that the once-legendary gangster Arthur Shelby Sr. had killed himself. That wouldn't have been awfully out of character for Arthur, as he tried to hang himself as early as Season 1, only for the rope to snap and spare his life.
Arthur may not have attempted to end his life again in Peaky Blinders' six seasons, but he consistently struggled with severe PTSD from his army days, leading to depression, drug addiction, and consistent suicidal thoughts.
How Did Arthur Shelby Die In Peaky Blinders? Tommy Reveals What Actually Happened
The Gypsy seer Kaulo reveals that Arthur went to Tommy's office wanting to borrow money before stealing his car, armed with a gun. Tommy explained that he went looking for his brother and found him injured, having crashed the vehicle and taken so much opium that "he started to believe that [Tommy] was the devil."
As the Shelby brothers brawled in the car, The Immortal Man leads viewers to believe that a gun went off and killed Arthur in that moment, which Tommy explains was "an accident." Despite initially confirming to Kaulo that he killed Arthur by mistake, that wasn't the end of the revelations.
After Tommy's sister Ada was shot dead by Tim Roth's fascist sympathizer John Beckett, he confessed over her body in the morgue that there was no accident or act of mercy. Instead, Tommy reveals that the gunshot hit neither brother, and he went on to strangle Arthur to death "'cause [he] was full of booze and rage."
The Brummie gangster explained the true reason he killed Arthur was that he "wanted to be free of him," even passing on an opportunity to spare his life. His murderous decision weighed heavily on Tommy up until his death in The Immortal Man, explaining how Arthur's end was "where the door in [his] head blew open," causing a mental shift as he had outlived yet another loved one.
Cillian Murphy addressed Tommy's decision and guilt on Netflix's The Immortal Man podcast (which is streaming on the platform now), stating that his Blinder will "never, ever be at peace until he’s no longer on this world because of that."
Of course, Tommy has found that peace, as, by his own request, he was killed by his son Duke Shelby at The Immortal Man's climax. That leaves Finn Shelby, who was banished from the family in Season 6, as the only survivor of the siblings.
A report stated that Netflix is looking to "franchise" Peaky Blinders with multiple spin-offs, including a prequel centered on the late Helen McCrory's Polly Gray. For the time being, the saga will continue in just one sequel spin-off that is filming now with a two-season order to explore a new generation of Shelbys in Birmingham, 1953, roughly 13 years after the events of the Peaky Blinders movie.
