Peaky Blinders movie star Rebecca Ferguson had been desperate to work with Cillian Murphy for ages

Over the course of its original six season run, Peaky Blinders had no shortage of hugely talented cast members – you need only look at the fact that the past two Best Actor Oscar winners both had key roles on the show for proof of that.

Many of those original stars – including lead Cillian Murphy, of course – are set to reprise their roles in the upcoming feature film The Immortal Man, and the ensemble has also been bolstered by a number of high-profile new additions.

One new cast member is Rebecca Ferguson, the brilliant star of Mission: Impossible, Dune and Silo, among many others. And so when RadioTimes.com spoke to her about her role in Kathryn Bigelow's new film A House of Dynamite, we couldn't help but ask about joining the Birmingham-set gangster saga.

"I feel very lucky right now," she said, appearing visibly animated. "I wanted to work with Cillian for a very long time, and we have the same agent.

"So I've been constantly calling saying, ‘What's up? What's going on? What are we doing?’ So when this came it was a no brainer for me."

Ferguson went on to discuss exactly what excited her so much about playing a role in the film, gesturing to the massive popularity the series enjoyed during its original run between 2013 and 2022.

"What's fun is coming into a world that is so sedimented, it's so rooted, it has such a profound following, it's quite scary," she said. "So, yeah, it was an honour, the fact that they trusted me to do it – because it's a huge movie."

While little has been revealed about Ferguson's role – or the film's plot – at this stage, series creator Steven Knight previously told RadioTimes.com that it would tell "a sort of untold story that happened in the Second World War, which Peakys are going to be involved in".

We also know that the movie will not mark the end of the Shelby family tale. After much speculation, it was confirmed earlier this month that the series would return for not one, but two more seasons – which will take place following a time jump.

According to an official synopsis, the new seasons will pick up in 1953 and tell the story of a new generation of Shelbys.

"After being heavily bombed in WWII, Birmingham is building a better future out of concrete and steel," the synopsis reads.

"In a new era of Steven Knight’s Peaky Blinders, the race to own Birmingham’s massive reconstruction project becomes a brutal contest of mythical dimensions.

"This is a city of unprecedented opportunity and danger: with the Shelby family right at its blood-soaked heart."

Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.