Netflix's Perfect Peaky Blinders Replacement Is A Remake Of 56-Year-Old Crime Classic

Published Oct 8, 2026, 4:32 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. Although Netflix’s Peaky Blinders saga might have come to a fitting end, the show already has a perfect follow-up in the form of a remake of a largely forgotten 1970 historical drama. Although the arrival of 2016’s smash hit Stranger Things is often credited with making Netflix a household name, the truth is that the streaming service had a lot of big mainstream hits even before that iconic sci-fi mystery series. Between 2013 and 2016, Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, and BoJack Horseman all helped to build the brand’s credibility and profile, as did the iconic mob drama Peaky Blinders. While recent crime thrillers like MobLand opted to focus on contemporary career criminals, Peaky Blinders was a more nostalgic period drama. Skewing closer to Boardwalk Empire than The Sopranos, the landmark series charted the rise of the Birmingham street gang of the same name. Starring a career-best Cillian Murphy as the conflicted gangster Tommy Shelby, Peaky Blinders followed the antihero’s attempts to evade the police, rival gangs, and various political factions as he turned the Blinders into a force to be reckoned with in the city. Taking place in the aftermath of World War 1, Peaky Blinders didn’t sugarcoat the harsh realities of life in a socially and economically hollowed out Britain, but the show also didn’t get lost in dour gloom. This is precisely what makes a remake of The Molly Maguires a perfect follow-up to the hit. Netflix Needs To Turn The Molly Maguires Into A Modern TV Series Peaky Blinders wrapped up its six-season run after 36 episodes in 2022, with the critically acclaimed spinoff movie Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man arriving in 2026 to round out Tommy Shelby’s story. While This City is Ours offered a more modern spin on urban gang turf wars in 2025, a television series based on the 1970 historical drama The Molly Maguires would be the most tonally, thematically, and narratively fitting follow-up to the Peaky Blinders saga. Another period drama about a gang of Irish antiheroes operating outside the law, The Molly Maguires has the benefit of being based on real, if hotly contested, history. Based on author Arthur H. Lewis’s 1964 book Lament for the Molly Maguires, 1970’s The Molly Maguires is set in mining communities of 1800s Pennsylvania. The movie sees Richard Harris’s conflicted cop Detective James McParland infiltrate the titular secret society, a group of miners and labor activists fighting for safe working conditions and fair pay. With Sean Connery as the gang leader "Black Jack" Kehoe, The Molly Maguires highlights the horrific conditions faced by Irish immigrant miners in the era. Rich industrialists later had numerous alleged members of the eponymous secret society put on trial and killed, claiming that the Molly Maguires were supposedly responsible for intimidation, property damage, arson, and even murders that were carried out to secure better working conditions in the lethally dangerous anthracite coal field of Pennsylvania. The Molly Maguires Redone As A TV Series Could Replace Peaky Blinders via MovieStillsDB 1970’s The Molly Maguires gives Netflix a perfect blueprint for an updated take on the story. Much like Peaky Blinders made its central gang not just human, but strangely heroic, a TV series based on The Molly Maguires could highlight the hardships faced by working-class immigrants at the time and the extreme measures some felt compelled to go to so that they could secure safer working conditions. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the cultural mythos of the Molly Maguires is that of a tough-as-nails secret society that defeated rich capitalists until they were undermined by a turncoat cop. The story, while contested by historians who note that there is little evidence of the supposed crimes committed by the Molly Maguires, is thrilling, twisty, and dramatic enough to make a remake of The Molly Maguires a perfect, morally ambiguous Peaky Blinders replacement. Release Date February 8, 1970 Runtime 120 minutes Director Martin Ritt Writers Walter Bernstein Cast Samantha Eggar Mary Raines