The Peaky Blinders Exit Even Some Of The Cast Didn't Know Was Coming
If you're an actor, getting a role in a show like "Peaky Blinders" isn't the best possible guarantee for job security. By the end of "Peaky Blinders" Season 6, the vast majority of the show's major characters over the seasons are dead — either because of bloody plot twists, or in the case of the devastating death of star Helen McCrory, due to behind-the-scenes tragedies.
When you become an enemy of the Peaky Blinders in general and Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) in particular, your fate tends to be sealed in one way or another. Because the Shelbys still have a great many enemies, their allies aren't necessarily any safer. As such, even characters played by big-name actors like Sam Neill and Adrien Brody aren't above meeting violent fates when the situation calls for it — which, more often than not, it does.
Due to the show's nature, it's easy to suspect that everyone involved in making it was ready for virtually anything the script could possibly throw at them. However, there's one particular "Peaky Blinders" exit that was so shocking, even some of the cast didn't know it was coming.
Alfie Solomons' departure surprised everyone, including Tom Hardy's co-stars
"Peaky Blinders" isn't exactly short of star power — after all, the show's main character is played by Cillian Murphy, who's regularly appeared in some of the biggest movies Hollywood has ever thrown at viewers' eyeballs. Even so, when Tom Hardy turned up in Season 2 as conniving, hard-as-nails Alfie Solomons, it was not exactly hard to assume that an A-lister of his caliber wouldn't chain himself into a small-screen role for long. Nevertheless, the scene-stealing Alfie became a major character who turned up on a regular basis to trade barbs with Tommy ... only to betray the Peaky Blinder, and die after a faceoff in Season 4 Episode 6.
As Paul Anderson (who plays Arthur Shelby in the show) told Digital Spy, this development was so shocking that even some cast members had no idea that Alfie wouldn't survive that Season 4 beach scene. "I didn't know that was coming," Anderson revealed. "We were unsure ... there was a whole thing about whether or not Alfie would live or die, or get shot or not. It was up for debate and discussion."
Of course, Alfie's exit wasn't a permanent one. According to Anderson, Hardy was personally very much against his removal from the show. In fact, per the Independent, Alfie made his magnificent return in Season 5 precisely because Hardy badgered "Peaky Blinders" creator Steven Knight into writing him back in the show.