Peaky Blinders creator confirms Stephen Graham plan for future seasons, but NOT as Al Capone
Peaky Blinders season 5 creator Steven Knight has confirmed a role for Line of Duty's Stephen Graham for season 6 or 7 of the show – along with LOTS more guest cameos.
Graham has long been a fan-favourite request to join the cast, following hints towards an appearance from Al Capone at the close of season 4.
Of course, Graham has already dominated the role of the famous gangster during his time in Boardwalk Empire, but Knight doesn't want to introduce Al Capone.
Speaking to the Obsessed With... Peaky Blinders podcast, Knight opened up about guest stars he wants in the show.
SERIES 5 TRAILER. "There's God, and there are the #PeakyBlinders". Coming soon to @bbcone. pic.twitter.com/2x9xL3ymX1
— Peaky Blinders (@ThePeakyBlinder) July 30, 2019
"Stephen Graham," he said.
"Don't worry... we're proceeding with that, but not for this series. Not Al Capone – I didn't want to go west. Because it's a minefield once you go into Chicago gangsters. I refer to him last series, but I didn't want to go into that.
"The amount of people who have come to us wanting to be in it is quite astonishing, and really good people. So what I've tried to avoid before is turning it into a spot the celebrity – you know, because I think it's quite distracting sometimes.
"But someone like Adrien Brody is a great actor – obviously, you want to put them in it. But I think now we're coming to the final two series, I'm going to relax and open the gates a bit because there's some amazing people who want to be in it, and I think why not."
Interestingly, former Peaky Blinders actor Tom Hardy is set to star in new biopic Fonzo, where he's playing none other than... Al Capone.
When asked about what sort of role he would want Graham to appear in, rather than Al Capone, Knight was cagey.
"I've already got it and I'm not going to tell you [laughs]!"
There have been plenty of high-profile names reportedly keen on appearing in the BBC crime drama, even David Beckham was falsely rumoured at one stage.
Knight was reluctant to run down a list of big names, but did confirm another A-list hopeful – Julia Roberts, who has been linked to the Peaky Blinders movie.
"I don't know where that got out, but yeah, fingers crossed on that," he said. "I can't really do a list, sometimes not-actors want to take part."
By "not-actors", Knight meant musicians, who have also approached the show in droves to be involved. However, the writer finished by saying that celebrity cameos can sometimes be "counterproductive".
Game of Thrones included an infamous cameo from Ed Sheeran following his friendship with Arya Stark actress Maisie Williams. However, it proved so unpopular with fans, the show later mauled Ed's character off-screen.
Peaky Blinders will move to BBC One when it returns later in 2019.
Obsessed With… Peaky Blinders with Digital Spy's Editor, Laurence Mozafari, is out now and available to listen to on BBC Sounds.
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