Money Heist spoilers follow.
Money Heist season four (La casa de papel) ramped up the action and added more bloodshed than all three previous seasons combined.
Fans might have expected the season-four finale to follow the same format as season two, neatly wrapping up the heist after just two seasons. But nothing seems to have gone to plan this time around, and the gang have been forced to buy themselves a bit more time.
That means season four ends on a cliffhanger, which left the door wide open for a potential Money Heist season five.
And thankfully, Netflix has confirmed it’s happening.
On Friday, July 31, Netflix announced Money Heist would be returning for a fifth – and final – season, saying “the heist will come to an end”.
White Lines, however, wasn’t so lucky.
The Netflix show, which was created by Álex Pina, was cancelled after one season.
Money Heist season five will shoot in Spain, Denmark and Portugal, with the final series consisting of 10 episodes. Netflix put its season five plans into action a few days after the announcement, starting production on August 3.
Here’s everything you need to know.
Money Heist season 5 release date: When will it air on Netflix?
Money Heist season five took its sweet time to get greenlit, but as one of the most popular Netflix series in the world – it was ranked #2 in the UK on April 6, 2020 – it was always doubtful that the streamer would pull the plug on an incomplete narrative.
“It’s pure rock’n’roll,” said Álvaro Morte, aka the Professor (via the Guardian). “Once you see the first chapter of the show, you are lost in it.”
Fans waited just under nine months between seasons three and four of Money Heist. If season five had followed the same pattern, we might have been back at the bank by the end of 2020.
On March 15, Netflix paused production on all its original series for two weeks due to the ongoing world situation. But the cast and crew are now back in action, according to reports.
While we wouldn’t expect the latest chapter to premiere this year, 2021 is a real possibility, potentially October, barring any disasters.
But we’re still very much treading the unknown in the current climate, so that really is the best case scenario.
Money Heist season 5 cast: Who will be in it?
Netflix has revealed who we can expect to see in season five, and there are some new faces joining the gang.
Miguel Ángel Silvestre (Sky Rojo, Sense 8) and Patrick Criado (Goya award nominee for La gran familia española, Vivir sin permiso) have been confirmed as new additions to the ensemble.
Returning actors also confirmed for the new series include: Úrsula Coberó (Tokyo), Álvaro Morte (The Professor) , Itziar Ituño (Lisbon), Pedro Alonso (Berlín), Miguel Herrán (Rio), Jaime Lorente (Denver), Esther Acebo (Stockholm), Enrique Arce (Arturo), Darko Peric (Helsinki), Hovik Keuchkerian (Bogotá), Luka Peros (Marseille), Belén Cuesta (Manila), Fernando Cayo (Coronel Tamayo), Rodrigo de la Serna (Palermo), Najwa Nimri (Inspector Sierra), and José Manuel Poga (Gandía).
The following crew members are also working on the next instalment: Jesús Colmenar (Executive Producer), Alex Pina (Executive Producer and Showrunner), Cristina López Ferraz (Director of Production and Executive Producer), Javier Gómez Santander (head writer), Migue Amodeo (Director of Photography), and Esther Martínez-Lobato (Co-Producer).
The new season will have three directors; Jesús Colmenar, Koldo Serra and Álex Rodrigo.
Money Heist season 5 plot: What will happen?
Like every season of Money Heist, season five will catch up with the professor and the gang doing what they do best: armed robbery of the highest degree, with a smattering of political resistance thrown in.
There are a number of loose threads left dangling at the end of season four that future episodes could explore.
Lisbon is now inside the bank, but with the professor cornered by Inspectora Alicia Sierra, Lisbon and the others have no way to escape. They’ll have to continue melting gold at top speed, and hope that Sergio can find a way to outsmart Sierra once and for all.
And then there’s the matter of that sneaky Easter egg to contend with too.
Anyone who stuck around to watch the credits might have noticed that the resistance anthem ‘Bella Ciao’ can be heard playing at the end. The song is full of themes that have played an important role throughout the series, but what’s even more important this time round is who’s actually singing it.
Oprah Magazine points out that actress Najwa Nimri is singing a cover of the tune this time round, just a few seconds after the credits start to roll. Before that, the only character’s heard singing this song are those who fight alongside Berlin and Sergio, representing a kind of induction to their cause.
So does this mean that Alicia will join the group in season five?
While this could just be a coincidence, the fact that Nimri also delivers the last line of dialogue right before the credits makes the connection seem more deliberate than that.
Although some fan theories suggest that Alicia could secretly be Tatiana, Berlin’s wife from those recent flashbacks, that seems like more of a stretch. Sure, the two women look similar, but Tatiana is played by Diana Gómez, not Nimri.
Still, we shouldn’t rule out some kind of relationship between the two. After all, Money Heist hasn’t shied away from surprise family reveals in the past, which means that Alicia and Tatiana may be closely connected after all.
Either way, don’t be surprised if Alicia joins the cause in season five, switching up the dynamics of the show completely.
Chatting to Identity Mag, Úrsula Corberó (Tokio) chatted about where she thinks her character and Rio will go next.
“I have been wondering about whether or not this relationship is toxic. With Rio’s vulnerability and Tokio being very protective of him, we can see that from the very beginning. But perhaps it’s a bit toxic because of Tokio’s personality.
“For their future…I do know how it’s going to go from here…The way I see it is that there are like two teams – and we can see this very clearly on social media. Some people want Tokio and Rio to reunite and get back together and some others are very much against this relationship and don’t want them together ever again.”
But it’s not just the ongoing plot which could change either. Like the Fast & Furious or Power franchises, there’s scope for whole worlds outside the main show itself and the creators have seemingly embraced those possibilities whole-heartedly. Showrunner Alex Piña told Oprah magazine: “We do have many possibilities for some spinoffs, yes, and I think that’s thanks to the strong and powerful identities of the characters.
“We’ve always looked for characters to have a very complex, layered design. So I think almost every character of Money Heist has a duality that we would like to see in a spinoff. We could watch any of them in other contexts.
“I think Arturito could have a black comedy. Berlin’s case for his own show is very clear – he’s a misogynist, a psychopath, egocentric, a narcissist, a delinquent, a rapist… but still there are lots of people who adore him, because he values friendship, loyalty or fraternity.
“From Nairobi to El Profesor… Denver is yet another character with his own charm. I would love to write all of them as spinoffs!”
Speaking of Nairobi, Alba Flores was brought in after its creators realised they had a problem.
“They were writing the script for La Casa de Papel, and they realised that there was just one female character, Tokio,” Flores told Oprah Magazine. “And they thought, ‘This is not going to work.’
“So he called me and asked if I wanted to come be on his new TV show and offered to send me the script for the first two episodes. He said, ‘If you like it, I can write a role for you.’ And that’s how Nairobi was born.”
She also spoke about just how much the show has changed her life: “We have fans around the entire world, from Spain to the US to Thailand.
“There are people that have tattooed my face on their body. I was recently in the street and a teenage girl came to me and said, ‘Please take a picture with me…I’m so excited that I’m going to get your face tattooed on my arm.’
“I said, ‘Think about it for a few days, please! Not even my mother is going to do that’ So somewhere, this girl has Nairobi’s face on her arm forever.”
Director Jesús Colmenar also confirmed they were thinking about further offshoots of the show to La Vanguardia.
We, too, would love for you to write them all as spin-offs, Alex, so if you could have a quiet word with Netflix and get the ball rolling that would be grand.
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