Slow Horses season 5 release date speculation, plot and latest news

Slow Horses season 5 is top of our wish list following the fourth season finale airing this week.

Starring Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas and based on author Mick Herron's amazing series of novels, we're slightly hooked on the Apple TV+ spy series.

As per the show's synopsis, it follows “a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents and their obnoxious boss, the notorious Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) as they navigate the espionage world's smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces”.

And now the Slow Horses season 4 finale has dropped, we have only one question. Will Slow Horses be back for a season 5?

The answer is a resounding yes – Apple TV+ confirmed that a fifth chapter of the TV series had been commissioned earlier this year, in January.

Here's everything we know so far about Slow Horses season 5.

Jack English/Apple TV

Slow Horses season 5 release date speculation

No release date has been confirmed yet, but predictions have been made that it could be in the autumn of 2025. This is due to the patterns of the release dates of previous seasons, with the first airing in April 2022 and the second and third airing in December 2022 and 2023 respectively and the fourth beginning airing very recently in September 2024.

The show's star Gary Oldman has confirmed that filming has finished already for season 5. He told Deadline: “We’ve just finished filming season five 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.”

If it's already being edited, Slow Horses season 5 could even be with us earlier on in 2025, seeing as the show seems to operate a fairly quick post-production schedule.

Slow Horses season 5 cast

It looks like we've got Gary Oldman “for the long run”, which is good as we doubt Slow Horses would work without him.

“I’m tethered to [Slow Horses], even when I’ve got a six-month break,” he told Wall Street Journal Magazine. “And it dictates if I do anything else.” It even took priority over his role in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer.

River Cartwright actor Jack Lowden also seems invested for another season: “As long as it's still interesting and people are still interested, I think it's the same with anything, I'd love to do it,” he told Collider.

We can only hope for the return of our other Slow Horses favourites:

Kristin Scott Thomas as Diana TavernerSaskia Reeves as Catherine StandishAimee-Ffion Edwards as Shirley DanderChristopher Chung as Roddy HoRuth Bradley as Emma FlyteRosalind Eleazar as Louisa GuyNaomi Wirthner as Molly DoranTom Brooke as JK CoeJames Callis as Claude WhelanSamuel West as Peter Judd

Jack English

Slow Horses season 5 plot

Season 5 will follow the plot of Mick Herron's fifth novel in his series, named London Rules.

According to the book's synopsis, somene is trying to kill Roddy Ho, and Claude Whelan (James Callis) is "tasked with protecting a beleaguered prime minister, facing attack from all directions: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat’s wife, a tabloid columnist, who’s crucifying Whelan in print; from the PM’s favorite Muslim, who’s about to be elected mayor of the West Midlands, despite the dark secret he’s hiding; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who’s alert for Claude’s every stumble.

"Meanwhile, the country’s being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks."

It is safe to say that, as usual, there will be A LOT going on.

Is there a Slow Horses season 5 trailer?

There is, in fact, a Slow Horses season 5 teaser – but it's only available to watch at the end of the season 4 finale.

We'll update this article if that changes!