On one hand — perhaps, if you will, a red right hand — “Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man” is, largely, a formidable cinematic successor to “Peaky Blinders,” a British period crime drama that debuted on the BBC in 2013 and gained more viewers in these parts after Netflix picked up the show the following year.

With a wider aspect ratio than that of the series, a few big-screen-worthy action sequences and, most importantly, series star and Academy Award winner Cillian Murphy front and center, the film — hitting Netflix this week following a brief theatrical release — delivers much of what a fan would expect.

On the other hand, while watching it, you can’t shake the thought that budgetary realities, real life and world history kept the show’s creator and the film’s screenwriter, Steven Knight, from making it everything a “Peaky” devotee would hope.

After six blood-and-whiskey-soaked seasons, telling a story spanning from 1919 to 1934, “Peaky Blinders” left standing the film’s hard-to-kill titular figure, Murphy’s Thomas Shelby. The second-oldest of four brothers, Tommy ran the criminal enterprise the Peaky Blinders — based loosely on a real gang — and later worked for the British government to fight the ever-strengthening grip of fascism in Europe.

Set in 1940, as World War II rages, “The Immortal Man” begins with Tommy living in seclusion outside Birmingham, the ghosts that haunt him — both figurative and, it would seem, literal — having only intensified following the off-screen death of his explosive older brother, Arthur. (It seems at the very least possible that the well-documented troubles surrounding Paul Anderson, who portrayed Arthur on the series, led to the actor not being included in the movie. He has, however, voiced support for the film.)

Although he’s keeping everyone but the ever-loyal Johnny Dogs (Packy Lee) at arm’s length — he talks with his sister, Ada (Sophie Rundle), in her car, declining to let her beyond the gate of his rundown country estate — he’s visited in the home by an uninvited guest, a gypsy named Kaulo (Rebecca Ferguson). The twin sister of the late Zelda — the mother of Tommy’s first child, son Erasmus — says she’s still in contact with her sister and wants Tommy to save the young man. In exchange, she says, she’s offering him the long-elusive “peace” he’s desired.

Erasmus, better known as “Duke” (Barry Keoghan, taking over the role from series actor Conrad Khan), has filled the power vacuum left by his father. As Ada tells Tommy, Duke is “running the Peaky Blinders like it’s 1919 all over again — worse than you and Arthur ever were.”

Early on, we see the Duke-led Blinders stealing weapons from a bombed Birmingham factory, with the written permission of the local police chief, in what is a nice callback to the series’ beginning.

Even more problematically, Duke is going into business with John Beckett (Tim Roth), treasurer of the British Union of Fascists, who is attempting to help Nazi Germany flood England with counterfeit currency in the hopes of crashing its economy. First, though, Duke must convince Beckett, with more than words, that he’s willing to commit this act of treason and all it requires.

Inevitably, Tommy eventually decides to confront Duke, leading to a tug-of-war between Tommy and Beckett for his soul.

The casting in “The Immortal Man” is a mixed bag, with Ferguson (“Dune,” “Silo”) and Keoghan (“Saltburn,” “The Banshees of Inisherin”) proving to be excellent additions. The former is bewitching in her confrontations with Tommy — especially when Zelda, seemingly, inhabits her sister’s body. And the always-interesting Keoghan, fresh off portraying an unhinged criminal in the recent theatrical release “Crime 101,” brings the needed jagged edge to Duke; we aren’t sure what the character is capable of at any time.

However, Roth (“Reservoir Dogs,” “The Hateful Eight”), simply doesn’t have the needed weight to play the film’s heavy. Yes, “The Immortal Man” is, ultimately, about father and son, Tommy and Duke, but Roth is a key player. And when you think about the actors who’ve portrayed Tommy’s adversaries on the small screen — including Tom Hardy, Adrien Brody and Sam Claflin, whose Sir Oswald Mosley, a fascist, is still alive at the end of the series — Roth is a letdown as this forgettable foe.

Nevertheless, with Murphy (“Oppenheimer,” “A Quiet Place Part II”), “The Immortal Man” has most of the firepower it needs. The actor slips the familiar, comfortable glove that is Tommy Shelby back onto that red right hand with great ease and is dynamite opposite Keoghan.

That second, arguably gratuitous reference to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ “Red Right Hand” — a song synonymous with the series, serving as its opening theme for much of its run and being used in one form or another throughout its run — brings us to the film’s music, which rocks. A version of that song is featured, of course, but the movie is stuffed with impactful songs and a fine score by composer and creative music supervisor Antony Genn.

Seasoned with enough background for a newcomer to follow its story and nicely directed by Tom Harper, who helmed the final three episodes of the show’s first season, “The Immortal Man” does not appear to be the swan song for “Peaky Blinders.” Netflix has confirmed that a sequel series, set in the 1950s, is on the way.

As we wait on casting announcements, we’re happy to know “Peaky” will rock on.

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‘PEAKY BLINDERS: THE IMMORTAL MAN’

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for violence/bloody images, language throughout, some drug use and nudity)

Running time: 1:52

How to watch: On Netflix March 20

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