Netflix renews Money Heist for fifth and final season

BELLA CIAO! BELLA CIAO! BELLA CIAO, CIAO, CIAO! Yes, fans of Money Heist have some serious reason to celebrate as Netflix finally announced this weekend past that it has officially greenlit a fifth and final season of the brilliant Spanish crime drama. Through four seasons we’ve followed Álvaro Morte’s criminal mastermind The Professor as he led his team of modern-day Robin Hoods (except they mostly gave to themselves) on seemingly impossible heists.

Created by Álex Pina, La Casa de Papel (as it’s known in its native homeland) first launched on Spanish TV in 2017 with The Professor leading a daring heist of the Royal Mint of Spain with a group of randomly assembled misfits all code-named after cities. With fantastic character performances, clever plotting, and a barrage of dramatic twists, the show was popular but its popularity was nothing as compared to when Netflix secured the rights later in that year. Recutting the show’s 22 episodes into 15 and releasing them in two parts, Money Heist was transformed into a global phenomenon. Not only did it win several awards, including Best Drama Series, at the 46th International Emmy Awards, but in 2018 it became Netflix’s most-watched foreign language production ever and one of its most-watched overall. And my household, family, and friends definitely contributed to that number as we all became obsessed with the series.

Season four, released this past April on Netflix, ended on a whopper of a cliffhanger (seriously, my wife screamed out “WHAT?!” when the credits rolled), and while Money Heist’s popularity all but guaranteed a resolution, with how 2020 had been playing out, it was unclear when that would happen. Well, the answer is actually “very soon” as production begins today in Denmark before filming moves on to Spain and Portugal. And speaking to EW, Pina revealed that the new season will somehow be upping the ante even further than what we’ve had before.

We are moving from a chess game – a mere intellectual strategy – to a war strategy: attack and contention.

Continuing further, Pina revealed that the new season will get to explore a bit more of Denver’s backstory, while the battle of wills between The Professor and Najwa Nimri’s ruthless police inspector Alicia Sierra will lead to “a wild war”.

Adrenaline is within Money Heist’s DNA. Every thirty seconds things take place and disrupt the characters, a turn of the screw to the action. The adrenaline mixed with feelings arising from absolutely complex, magnetic, unforeseeable characters will continue until the end of the heist to the Bank of Spain. However, the gang will now be pushed into irreversible situations, into a wild war: it is the most epic part of all the parts we’ve shot.

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Every war needs soldiers, and so Money Heist’s cast will be expanding in season five to add Miguel Ángel Silvestre, most popular for playing Lito in Netflix’s Sense8, and newcomer Patrick Criado. Just who they’re playing here is being kept under wraps for now, but Pina appeared to tease that they will be fighting against the crew and not alongside them in this war.

We always try that our opponents be charismatic, intelligent, shiny. In this case, in pure war film genre, we also look for characters whose intelligence can measure up against The Professor’s.

Whatever the role is of these new characters, I will be watching. I’ve been eagerly waiting for news of more Money Heist, and while we don’t know exactly when season five will be released (though I would guess early 2021), it sounds like it’s going to be one hell of a finale.

Last Updated: August 3, 2020