As the smoke settles on the streets of Birmingham, the Peaky Blinders legacy looks set to spread its empire across the pond to Boston, with not one, but two spinoff series in the offing for Netflix. The original British crime saga, which ended its triumphant run in 2022, may have primarily traced the Shelby family's escapades in early 20th-century England, but the next chapter is pegged to delve into the gangster-laden narrative of mid-century Boston.
According to a report by Caught In Southie, the Beantown edition will highlight the historical underpinnings of crime in neighborhoods like South Boston and East Boston. The fiction will potentially dovetail with reality, as South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has played host to a slew of Hollywood productions that romanticized its gritty lore such as 'Good Will Hunting' and 'The Departed.' In Peaky Blinders, references to Boston's underbelly are aplenty, with the mention of East Boston's Solomon's and a South Boston crime leader, Jack Nelson, alleged to mimic none other than Joseph Kennedy Sr., father to JFK.
The reported spinoffs are expanding the "Peaky-verse" further, with a complementary series spotlighting the Shelby matriarch Polly, as per ScreenRant. This extension arrives without the late Helen McCrory, who brought the formidable Polly to life before her untimely death in 2021. Meanwhile, Cillian Murphy's star continues to rise post-Peaky, with Academy Award buzz surrounding his role in Christopher Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' slated for the same year.
While Boston's gangster scene has occasionally flickered on the silver screen, the slated Peaky Blinders narrative is expected to shine a spotlight on a lesser-illuminated epoch of organized crime. As most mob stories tend to hover around New York and New Jersey, Boston's turbulent tales remain comparatively undistilled, despite notable exceptions like 'The Departed,' capturing 1980s Boston, and 'Black Mass,' which starred Johnny Depp as Whitey Bulger. The new series, however, promises to trace the historic trajectory of the Irish mob and the Italian mafia's grip over the city, weaving threads dating back to, the Peaky Blinders timeline of 1919 to 1933.
The original series set the stage with transatlantic ties, alluding to Boston's criminal activities such as narcotics, bootlegging, and gambling, mentioned directly by the shell-shocked yet shrewd Tommy Shelby. These references within the dialogue of Peaky Blinders lay the groundwork for a rich backstory ripe for exploration in the upcoming Boston saga, as aficionados of the genre eagerly await the whir of Tommy Guns and the clink of illicit booze bottles once more on their screens.
