Peaky Blinders season 3 release date: Cillian Murphy and the gang start shooting

Creator Steven Knight promises 'more of the same but different' as Cillian Murphy returns

Cillian Murphy has no plans to quit 'brilliant' Peaky Blinders (BBC)

Series three of Peaky Blinders has been confirmed for release in 2016, with shooting now underway.

YOU'VE LANDED ON AN OLD STORY - LATEST ON PEAKY BLINDERS SEASON 3 HERE

Paddy Considine has boarded as ‘the representative of a force beyond anything Tommy has previously encountered’ according to Deadline, while Dina Korzun (Last Resort) and Jan Bijvoet (Cordon) are also joining the show as “refugees from a foreign conflict who desperately need Tommy’s help.”

The trade mag also had some new plot info, with Tommy’s world set to get a lot bigger than Birmingham:

‘Season 3 will see Tommy pulled into the glamorous and dangerous world of international intrigue in 1920s Britain, putting his entire organization and family at risk, and forcing him to question everything about his own ambitions and desires.’

The opening episode will be set on Tommy’s wedding day, with creator Steven Knight saying over the summer that he had resolved the question of Tommy ending up with Grace or May.

“I am genuinely thrilled at the prospect of Season Three. I think it will be the best yet. Lots of things familiar, but lots of things are new,” he said. “It’s still a Birmingham story and it always will be. Now, it has international consequences. I can’t wait to see it myself.”

He previously told Radio Times: “We all think [series three] is going to be the best yet by a long way,”

“We’ve got a lot of love out there, from the US and here. Great people who want to be part of it. In every way we’re stepping up to a new level.”

Cillian Murphy added that he will remain in the show so long as the writing stays "brilliant”, describing series 3’s as “the strongest it’s ever been, it’s off the charts”.

Showrunners are usually tight-lipped about how they will end their shows, but Knight said he “very roughly” imagines it closing ““when the first air raid siren sounds at the start of the Second World War”.

Plot details remain scant at this stage but writer and creator Steven Knight has revealed that viewers can expect "more of the same but different”.

“We all think [series three] is going to be the best yet by a long way,” he told an audience at the Radio Times Festival on Saturday. “We’ve got a lot of love out there, from the US and here. Great people who want to be part of it. In every way we’re stepping up to a new level.”

Knight added that power will be a key theme, with the storyline focusing on “what it can do to you and what you can do to it”.

The first two series of Peaky Blinders have attracted up to three million viewers, with streaming service Netflix airing both six-episode runs in the US.

Season 3 will arrive sometime in 2016.