Cillian Murphy Reacts to ‘Peaky Blinders’ Movie Taking on Nazis: ‘The Last Thing I Want to Be in Is a Preachy Work. Films Should Never Tell You How to Feel. They Should Just Ask Questions’

Cillian Murphy is back as Tommy Shelby in the long-awaited “Peaky Blinders” movie, “The Immortal Man.” The film brings the beloved show into the age of the WWII as nefarious British gangsters team up with Nazis to tank the U.K. economy. During an interview with The Telegraph, Murphy was informed that his “Peaky Blinders” movie has Nazis as the “baddies during an era where, especially on social media, people, like the political commentator Nick Fuentes, are openly saying they are aligned with the Nazis.”

“That’s profoundly upsetting,” Murphy replied. “But then this film wears that lightly — it’s not ‘The Zone of Interest,’ let’s put it that way. And, look, the last thing I want to be involved in is preachy or dogmatic work because films should never tell you how to feel. They should just ask questions. This should be an entertaining action film with a big heart, but if you want to look closer it could be provocative too. The best mainstream entertainment operates simultaneously on those levels.”

Murphy then pointed to Christopher Nolan’s atomic bomb drama “Oppenheimer,” for which he received the best actor Oscar.

“If you want to talk about where we are in the world and look at how close we are to nuclear fucking Armageddon, you can think about ‘Oppenheimer’ in that way, but if you just want to look at a great film with big explosions then that’s cool as well,” Murphy said.

“Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man” introduces Barry Keoghan as Duke Shelby, the illegitimate son of Tommy who’s now running the Peaky Blinders gang. Stephen Graham and Ned Dennehy return as Shelby family allies Hayden Stagg and Charlie Strong, respectively. The cast also includes newcomers Rebecca Ferguson and Jay Lycurgo.

“Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man” releases on Netflix on March 20.