Four years after the Season 6 finale and 13 years since Tommy Shelby first rode into frame on a black horse, Peaky Blinders is back, ushering in a new era for the British period crime drama now set against the backdrop of the Birmingham Blitz. But Director Tom Harper's The Immortal Man is both a beginning and an end – a final hurrah for Cillian Murphy's beloved antihero as he's pulled out of self-imposed exile to settle a score as World War II rages on.
Full disclosure: I never watched the series beyond the first episode of Season 1, but after 112 minutes of viewing this film, I'm inclined to make up for lost time. That's due in large part to Murphy, an actor brimming with so much pathos that he elevates everything he's in. Here, as Tommy – contemplating his life of violence, the losses, and legacy while hiding out in an isolated farmhouse – you don't need to know the ins and outs of his criminal past to recognize the heavy burden on his soul. It's present in every shrouded glance and the stiffness of his body. It’s there in his pained eyes as ghosts of dead loved ones invade his solitary retreat, which soon morphs into stoic resolve once he realizes the chaos of war won't let him hide away any longer.
In 1940, Birmingham was taking heavy fire from Nazi forces; bombs rained down on the midland city, aiming at munitions factories worked by local women. Their tragic deaths are devastatingly reimagined in an incendiary opening sequence that soon leads to the arrival of the Peaky Blinders, now led by Tommy's illegitimate firstborn son, Duke, who calmly enacts violence to take ownership of the country's weapons.
Barry Keoghan replaces Conrad Khan in the prodigal role, showcasing a less sinister edge than we're accustomed to when he's cast as an antagonist. Duke is really just an insecure kid with abandonment issues; he was sold by his Irish-Romani family to his father, who subsequently disappeared. His aunt Ada (Sophie Rundle), now a Member of Parliament, has zero patience for the aggressive resurgence of the Peaky Blinders under his leadership.
It's the sort of morally ambiguous, character-driven arc that Peaky creator and writer Steven Knight is known for. Duke seeks acceptance through power, even if that means accepting a deal with the Nazis to flood the British banking system with hundreds of millions of forged banknotes in order to send the country into freefall and help Germany win the war. He sees it as an opportunity to step out of his father's shadow, but once Ada threatens the contract, he's forced to reckon with his actions, which Keoghan calibrates with quiet fortitude and vulnerability.
Once a suited, booted, and flat-capped Tommy returns to Birmingham, the real action begins. A tense but hilarious confrontation with a gobby (chatty) soldier at the Blinders' haunt, the Garrison Tavern, reminds everyone who Tommy Shelby is – the type to bring a grenade to a gun fight and throw in a one-liner about music in pubs for good measure. It's one of a few dry jokes that earn a knowing chuckle, with Packy Lee earning a fair few laughs as Tommy's long-suffering sidekick, Johnny Dogs. Tommy’s reunion with Duke is far messier; he throttles his son and throws him around a pig sty, demanding answers about his involvement in the murder of a relative. With lesser actors, this scene might have veered into the ridiculous, but Murphy and Keoghan play it so intensely and emotively straight, you're swept up in the image of men's dirty behavior coming to a head.
The Immortal Man certainly has style. Fontaines DC's Grian Chatten and Amyl and the Sniffers' Amy Taylor add original songs to the anachronistic, atmospheric score with some recognizable needle drops from Massive Attack and Nick Cave. We see a muddied Tommy riding through Birmingham's battered streets like he's just come from the Front Line trenches with citizens reaching out to him – a messiah returned to save them. Tim Roth's smooth-talking Nazi sympathizer Beckett makes his entrance with a casual "heil f**king Hitler." Roth is always a reliably likeable baddie, and here he exudes a charmingly nonchalant energy for a war profiteer.
Rebecca Ferguson oozes into Tommy's life as a Roma fortune teller, the camera shifting seductively as she embodies his dead lover and manipulates him out of stagnation. Peaky Blinders clearly celebrates the Irish-Romani roots of its characters, and it makes sure its mystical practices, language, and ceremonies are sensitively handled…though I do wonder how many actors with that particular heritage were cast in these roles.
The Immortal Man ticks most of the boxes for Peaky Blinders fans, with Murphy and the cast playing a blinder.
The elephant in the room is Arthur Shelby, Tommy's volatile brother, played by Paul Anderson in the series. Legal issues regarding substance abuse prevented his involvement in the film, and his absence is felt in a shakily-handled flashback subplot. But devotees will be happy to see the returning Ned Dennehy as Charlie Strong and Stephen Graham as union convenor Hayden Stagg, who both aid Tommy in his mission to foil the Nazi's counterfeit scheme in the Liverpool dockhouses. It's a tense, action-packed finale complete with exploding canal boats, Nazis getting punched, and a heartbreaking showdown between Tommy, Beckett, and Duke.
The Immortal Man may not have reinvented the wheel with conventional wartime escapades, but it ticks most of the boxes for Peaky Blinders fans, with Murphy and the cast playing a blinder.
If you’ve seen anything of the upcoming survival horror game Hellraiser: Revival, then you’ll know it isn’t for the faint of heart. Full of bloody violence, gruesome gore, and BDSM-themed sex and nudity, it's a true translation of the pain and pleasure film series, which, despite all of these extremities, has managed to secure an ESRB rating.
Chief creative officer at Saber Interactive, Tim Willits, shared the news in a recent interview with IGN. “I can say that we have our ESRB rating, which was great, and we had to take nothing out for that,” he confirmed.
The fact that nothing had to be cut may come as a surprise to some. Of course, different ratings boards around the world weigh different aspects of mature games more than others. In the U.S. and Canada, the territories covered by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) are traditionally stricter when it comes to sexual content, something that Hellraiser: Revival certainly doesn’t shy away from — its opening scene is an extended sequence of sadomasochism involving hooks and other sharp objects. So, it’s somewhat impressive that the game has passed through with nothing needing to be taken out.
As for other regions around the world, that’s still very much work in progress for Saber. European ratings boards such as PEGI and the USK view graphic violence in a different way than America does, but are more liberal when it comes to the sexual side of things. Similarly, the Australian Classification Board is far stricter on games involving drug use, so it remains to be seen if just one version of Hellraiser: Revival will be able to be released globally, or if altered versions exist depending on where you live.
'Oh my God, I can't believe they did that.’ That's the kind of emotion that we want to get out of people.
It’s something that Saber is exploring currently and feels confident about. “We're working with all the other ratings groups now, and I think that we're going to do really well,” said Willits. “It's all context. It all fits with the IP. It is an artwork, and it is a mature game for mature audiences. We've stayed within those lines, and we've been very successful at moving the game through all rating boards.”
Willits and the team are not shying from the graphic side of the game either. “It's an active goal for the team. Yes. You can actually say that,” Willits explained. “Because if you are familiar with the franchise, if you're familiar with what Clive [Barker, Hellraiser creator] has done, it definitely pushes. And when we announced that we were making this, lots of people online were like, ‘They better do it right, they better not make some ‘whooshy’ game that's all censored.’ So we've tried to embrace it as much as we can. I really hope that players, they're kind of like, ‘What's around the next corner? What crazy stuff am I going to see next? Where is this going to go? Oh my God, I can't believe they did that.’ That's the kind of emotions that we want to get out of people.”
Last year, we heard from Willits that Saber intended to push its M Rating as far as it could with the upcoming video game adaptation. In that interview with IGN, he said: “We are going to go as far as we possibly can, as far as the people that make rules will let us go.” Well, it looks like that’s exactly what the team has done, securing an ESRB rating long before we even know the game’s release date.
Having played a good chunk of Hellraiser: Revival at gamescom 2025, I can indeed confirm first-hand that the limits for what’s allowed in a video game are being stretched by this blood-soaked pain and pleasure fest, where internal organs more often than not end up becoming external ones. You can read my full Hellraiser: Revival preview here, where I called it “Resident Evil for sickos.” I stand by it, even following some of the gory sights I’ve seen in Capcom’s latest, Resident Evil: Requiem.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
When it comes to LEGO sets, high piece counts and high prices often go hand-in-hand. For years, the standard LEGO pricing came out out to approximately 10 cents per brick, which meant a 5,000-piece set would probably cost $500, give or take. But the modern era has made this formula a bit more nuanced. Partnering with a third-party (like Disney, for example) will drive the price higher. And sometimes, the uniformity and commonness of the pieces will make the price lower.
So, even though this list and our list of the Most Expensive LEGO Sets have some significant overlap, it's not identical. Here, in ascending order, are the 10 Biggest LEGO Sets You Can Buy, as measured by piece count. We'll be updating this list, but it'll probably be awhile before another set tops 10,000 pieces.
Biggest LEGO Sets You Can Buy
The above is a quick TL;DR of the list. If you want details about any of the sets, keep on reading.
Avengers Tower
The Avengers Tower set comes with the entire OG Avengers crew, along with attachable clear pieces so you can pose Iron Man and Scarlet Witch fighting midair battles. The interior is six stories tall (minus the roof) and includes a fascimile of Stark's workshop. The exterior is composed of 271 windows, which you build individually. It's excessive, but gloriously so.
There are some big Star Wars LEGO sets out there. This model of the massive Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser is over three-and-a-half feet long, and it captures the power of the Republic Army during the Clone Wars – a power that would one day be absorbed by the Galactic Empire years later. The model comes with a display stand and minifigures of Captain Rex and Admiral Yularen.
The Lord of the Rings: Barad-dûr
Close to three feet tall, Barad-dûr is one of the biggest Lord of the Rings LEGO sets. It's topped with a glowing fire eye, and spiky, intimidating architecture covers the entire structure from base to peak. Each piece of the tower slides and stacks onto the others, like a grotesque wedding cake. The model opens in the back to reveal numerous, detailed interiors, including a dungeon, an armory, and Sauron's throne room. We reviewed this set at the time of its launch; check out our We Build feature and photo gallery of the entire build process.
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Castle
Scaled down to microfigure proportions, this recreation of Hogwarts Castle is over two feet tall and a little under two feet wide. In September 2025, it will have been 7 years since it first launched – an eternity in LEGO land, especially when some sets retire in under two years. It contains 27 microfigures, but the real treat, at least for Potter afficionadoes, are the four full-size minifigures of the Founders: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin.
The Lord of the Rings: Rivendell
Rivendell is not only one of the biggest LEGO sets for adults ever made. It is one of the best designed and the prettiest, with elven architecture that looks too light and delicate to be real. From the iconic gazebo to the bridge over the River Brunein; from Bilbo's study to the Council of Elrond; there's so many movie references, so many cool little details for the discerning eye. Check out our review and photo gallery of this set.
Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise
Pokémon knew how to make a splash with its first wave of sets. This massive model of Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise is close to 7000 pieces. There is some scenery and set dressing, but the vast majority of the build is dedicated to making the three Kanto Starters as big and detailed as possible. You can pose them separately, or as a trio for maximum impact.
Star Wars: Millennium Falcon
The oldest LEGO set on this list has been available for purchase since 2017 – a time when LEGO was just dipping its toes into the adult demographic. That it is still flying off the shelves is proof how timeless and bar-setting this set truly was and continues to be. Close to three feet long and two feet wide, the entire Falcon mounts on a stand that allows it to 'fly' at a dramatic angle.
Death Star
This thing is massive and heavy; one should not build this set without reinforcing the shelf that it will eventually display it. It's fragile, and it would not survive a fall. The LEGO Death Star is six floors tall and nearly three feet wide. It contains a working elevator to all of its floors, which operates by the turn of a crank. It's an ambitious build, but it's also decadently expensive, costing close to $200-$300 more than the only two sets with higher piece counts.
Titanic
The excessive piece count is almost the point of this set. The 'unsinkable' Titanic was the largest ship ever built when White Star Line launched it in 1911. It's best known today for its tragic sinking on its maiden voyage, in which 1,500 people died. But this four-and-half-foot long build remembers Titanic the way she was, with all her first class decadencies in tact. Check out our review and photo gallery.
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is composed of 10,001 pieces, which sounds terrifyingly expensive on its face. But it's actually $630 instead of the $1000 that conventional wisdom would dictate. Nearly five feet tall, with observation decks and elevators that run on cables, this is the biggest LEGO set by piece count in the company's history, beating even the 9,036-piece Roman Colloseum that retired at the end of 2023.
What's The Best Way To Get LEGO Sets On Discount?
LEGO piece counts and prices often go hand-inhand. So what's the best way to get expensive, big sets for cheaper?
First, join the LEGO Insiders program, which gives you points for every purchase that you make from the LEGO Store. Those points translate into money, which you can use towards the purchase of an expensive LEGO set. There are also select promotions – Star Wars Day, for example –where purchase of certain LEGO sets will garner double the points. So keep an eye out for deals.
Also, check Amazon, Walmart, Target, Barnes & Noble, and other places where LEGO are sold. Extra inventory, especially when a set's about to be retired, can often go for cheap. And these online and brick-and-mortar outlets often have specific days (Amazon Prime Days, for example) that offer deep discounts on sets that would otherwise sell at retail price.
Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He's also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.
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