"[6] On 19 April 2013, it was announced that Hardy would play Peter Beale in the long-running BBC soap opera EastEnders, taking over from Thomas Law who portrayed the character from 2006 until 2010.

[9][10] He was subsequently cast as writer John William Polidori in Haifaa Al-Mansour's period romance film Mary Shelley, opposite Elle Fanning and Douglas Booth.

[11] Hardy portrayed Granite Mountain Hotshots firefighter Wade Parker, who lost his life in the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire, in Joseph Kosinski's action-drama Only the Brave.

[12] In April 2018, he played the lead role of Walter Hartright in the BBC adaptation of the Wilkie Collins novel The Woman in White.

Hardy played Queen drummer Roger Taylor in the 2018 biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody, which earned him a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards.