Warning: Spoilers ahead for Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man!

Despite appearing in all six seasons of Peaky Blinders, Paul Anderson’s character, Arthur Shelby Jr., is missing the action in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.

When Peaky Blinders ended in 2022, Arthur was alive, but much changed in the years between the series and the point where the new movie begins.

So, why was Paul Anderson not in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man? Here’s everything to know about his character Arthur Shelby Jr.’s fate and the reason behind it.

Who did Paul Anderson play in Peaky Blinders?

Anderson played Arthur Shelby Jr., the older brother of Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy), in all six seasons of Peaky Blinders.

“Arthur is the type of man who has a reputation. He’s a feared man, he walks down the road and he gets respect,” Anderson told Den of Geek in November 2017.

He continued, “Some people dislike him, he’s hated by others, but he has that respect and doors open for him, he can go anywhere and get what he wants.”

What happens to Arthur Shelby in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man?

Arthur Shelby is dead in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.

The movie takes place in 1940, and according to the headstone at his grave, Arthur died two years earlier in 1938.

People believe Arthur “took his own life on the bridge,” as Kaulo (Rebecca Ferguson) tells Tommy in The Immortal Man, but, the truth is much darker.

Tommy killed Arthur in a drunken rage after Arthur asked for money and a car chase ensued.

“I killed [my] own brother, because I wanted to be free of him,” Tommy later says.

Why is Paul Anderson not in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man?

Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, who wrote The Immortal Man, is behind Arthur’s death, though it wasn’t what he set out to do.

“I don’t really think of it that way because I’m not really consciously planning the story; the story comes as I’m writing, it’s almost like discovering what it is. The story picks which characters are going to be there,” Knight told Digital Spy in March 2026.

The idea to kill off Anderson’s character ultimately keeps the focus on Tommy’s evolving story.

“[Tommy has] done some pretty bad things, so it’s going to take a lot for him to be so guilt-ridden that he would withdraw from the world,” Knight told SlashFilm in March 2026. “And all through his life, I think of him as being a good man doing bad things for a good reason, and the good reason has always been his family.”

By having Tommy kill Arthur, the latter could no longer deny that his reckless behavior affects everyone around him.

“Now, for him to have done what he did, for him to have killed his own brother, is huge,” Knight continued. “It’s the thing that has made him the person he is when we first join the film. So, it’s a question of giving him something that big that he then has to redeem himself through doing the good thing at the end.”

In the end, Tommy gives into his demise and dies too.

What has Paul Anderson said about Arthur’s fate in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man?

Arthur’s fate might be surprising to fans, but Anderson thinks “it’s great.”

“I mean, it’s such a powerful thing to do. It’s something you don’t see on TV,” the actor told LADbible.

“Everyone thought, well, everyone knows Arthur’s gonna die,” he continued. “I was quite surprised, I [Arthur] was quite nasty sometimes, I weren’t very nice to people in it. But people loved me.”