No matter how great the scripts for Peaky Blinders were, the chances of it being a hit would have been far slimmer had creator Steven Knight not cast it properly. Casting tends to be one of the most important aspects of any project. Great actors take great material and make it so specific and ultimately memorable. After all, could you imagine Seinfeld without its core group of actors? The same is true for Peaky Blinders.

The truth is, it took a while for Peaky Blinders to go from a cult-favorite to a global sensation. But that was in no way a fault of the cast. Steven and his team managed to get it right from the very beginning and this only opened up the doors to casting A-list talent, such as Tom Hardy, in later seasons. Here's how Steven Knight and his team cast Cillian Murphy and the cast of Peaky Blinders...

How Cillian Murphy Was Cast As Tommy Shelby In Peaky Blinders

Casting the Tommy Shelby role was obviously the priority for Steven, his casting director Shaheen Baig, and the rest of the Peaky Blinders tram. According to a fantastic oral history of Peaky Blinders by Esquire, there was a debate over the direction in which to go interns of casting the lead character. Shaheen, in particular, was a huge fan of Cillian Murphy. But due to his level of celebrity, she never thought he would want to take on the part. The budget was far smaller than he was used to, and it was TV. At the time, Cillian was mostly doing movies and there just wasn't the incredible desire for film stars to do television like there is nowadays.

"I'd been watching American TV shows like The Wire and thinking, those lucky actors getting to do those roles for so long. And I remember saying to my agent, is there any TV around? I didn't want to go to America to make television," the Irish-born Cillian, who played Tommy Shelby, explained to Esquire. "Within two days, my agent sent me the first few scripts of Peaky Blinders. So it was a combination of great agenting and serendipity, I think."

Related: How Cillian Murphy Elevated His Career After Landing His Iconic 'Peaky Blinders' Role

Cillian was immediately taken with the scripts, which he called "original" and "confident." He didn't have to do an audition, but Steven Knight wanted to sit and meet with him over a cup of tea. At the end of the meeting, Cillian sent Steven a text saying "Remember, I'm an actor." This was apparently him trying to explain that he wouldn't give Steven the polite, quite, Irishman that he got at tea.

Related: The Reason Jordan Bolger Left 'Peaky Blinders'

"I remember it took a while to persuade everyone that Cillian was the right person. Once Cillian had read it, he was like ‘I really want to do this," Shaheen explained. "There were lots of actors it could have been, who would have been great, but it felt like getting Cillian was a real treat."

How Sam Neill, Fin Cole, And Tom Hardy Were Cast In Peaky Blinders

Peaky Blinders is an ensemble. So as much as Cillian Murphy's Tommy Shelby is the POV character and the face of the show, the supporting cast is equally as important. That meant Steven and his team had to be extra particular when filling out the roles of Tommy's allies and enemies. Fortunately, they lucked out with the late-great Helen McCrory, who sadly passed away in April 2021. They also were very fortunate when landing Jurassic Park's Sam Neill, who played Inspector Chester Campbell for the first two seasons.

"Three or four things arrived at the same time, and this particular one had the name Peaky Blinders. I thought, strange name. So I had a look at that first," Sam Neill said to Esquire of his casting in the show. "I really only got as far as the speech where Campbell comes in to tear shreds off the local constabulary, about their corruption in the filthy squalor that Birmingham is at the time. It was so graphic and so vivid, and so excessive. I called my agent and said, 'I don't need to read anymore. I'm gonna do this.'"

Similarly, Sophie Rundle, who plays Ada Shelby, was captivated by her character and did everything she could to land a job in the show. When Fin Cole, who plays Michael Shelby, found out he was being brought onto Peaky Blinders, he couldn't believe it.

"The moment that I got the call, I remember I was at college, I was studying my A levels. I couldn't tell any of my mates and I was supposed to be giving a lift home to a couple of them. And they're by my mum's car, and I was standing there. And I just froze and I was speechless. And I just sort of saw, you know, life kind of click into place a little bit, and start to make a bit of sense all in this one moment. I was shaking the whole way home," Fin explained.

Of course, one of Peaky Blinders most surprising casting choices was Tom Hardy, who was just about as big of a movie star as one could get at the time.

"With Tom Hardy, that was amazing luck. I think he was supposed to do a project that maybe got delayed, and his agent rang and was talking to me about Tom’s availability and I was like, hmm – we might have something," Shaheen said.

Related: Tom Hardy’s Alfie Solomons Is Back In ‘Peaky Blinders’ Season 6

"Tom Hardy’s just a tremendous actor," Cillian added. "That character [Alfie Solomon], he brought it in fully f***ing formed. It was completely there: the voice, the hat, everything. And why I think it works, it's such a lovely contrast or companion or sort of negative and positive of Tommy, because he's [Alfie's] all this energy fizzing and Tommy's this stillness."

Next: 'Peaky Blinders' Star Cillian Murphy Pays Tribute To Helen McCrory Ahead Of Final Season