Slow Horses Season 4 has just wrapped up after a series of major revelations, a tragic death, and a significant escape. Fortunately, fans don’t have to wait much longer for Slow Horses Season 5, as the Emmy-winning series will soon return for yet another intriguing case.
The show was renewed for a fifth season in January and will continue the misadventures of MI5’s worst agents, who have been relegated to the infamous Slough House.
Based on Mick Herron's Slough House novel series, the fourth season, which adapts the fourth book Spook Street, raises the stakes with a terrorist plot that puts the agents’ lives in mortal danger.
As fans await what’s next for these most ineffective agents, all under the watchful eye of the rough-around-the-edges but brilliant Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), here’s everything we know about Slow Horses Season 5.
What is Slow Horses Season 5 about?
Following the series' established one-book-per-season format, Slow Horses Season 5 will adapt Mick Herron's fifth novel, London Rules.
While details about the upcoming season are still limited, the narrative will introduce a politically charged storyline centered around a rising Member of Parliament and his tabloid journalist wife, who aim to expose vulnerabilities within MI5.
This political intrigue will be intertwined with a series of terrorist attacks linked to a mayoral candidate in the West Midlands.
The new season also promises to delve deeper into the chaotic world of espionage as the Slough House agents confront both internal dynamics and external threats.
In addition to grappling with personal issues, the team will face the arrival of a new member, J.K. Coe (Tom Brooke), whose sanity is questioned. Furthermore, Roddy Ho’s (Christopher Chung) life will be in danger at the hands of a mysterious assassin.
As it’s a short rundown on the London Rules novel, here’s Apple TV’s official synopsis for the fifth season:
In Season 5 of Slow Horses, everyone is suspicious when resident tech nerd Roddy Ho has a glamorous new girlfriend, but when a series of increasingly bizarre events occur across the city, it falls to the Slow Horses to work out how everything is connected. After all, Jackson Lamb knows that in the world of espionage, 'London Rules' should always apply.
Slow Horses Season 5 Production Update
As the fourth season finale, Hello Goodbye, concluded, it dropped an exciting teaser for what awaits in Slow Horses Season 5. It’s safe to say that production for the fifth season has already wrapped up.
While other streaming series often take longer to produce new seasons, this Apple TV show operates differently. Following its renewal in January, filming reportedly began in March.
In fact, Oldman told Deadline in August that they were already finished filming at the time and “there’s another layer of the onion that is peeled back with Lamb.”
“You find out a little bit more about what went on,” he continued.
When will Slow Horses Season 5 be released?
While Apple has yet to announce an official release date for Slow Horses Season 5, showrunner Will Smith assures fans that “it’s coming.”
With production already completed, the fifth season is currently in the editing phase.
“We've nearly done season 5. We've got a couple of days to finish off on it, but we're already into the edit, so it's coming,” he told Collider. “Don't worry, it's coming. Not as quick as you want, but it's coming.”
Each new season of Slow Horses has been released within a year of one another. The first season premiered in April 2022, followed by the second season in December 2022, the third in November 2023, and the fourth in September 2024.
Given this pattern, it is reasonable to expect that Slow Horses Season 5 could be released as early as Spring 2025 or as late as Fall 2025.