‘Babylon Berlin’s Fifth And Final Season Receives Official Greenlight; Shooting To Start In Fall
The wait for news is over… Babylon Berlin is officially coming back for a fifth and final season.
The hit period drama’s future has been a topic of discussion since Sky Deutschland pulled out of original commissioning, leaving a funding gap in the series it shares with German pubcaster ARD Degeto.
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It was still expected to move forwards, with producers saying they expected it to film a final season and star Liv Lisa Fries recently telling us of plans to shoot later in 2024. Today, the news became official, with X-Filme Creative Pool producing season 5 in co-production with Beta Film and local pubcasters ARD Degeto, SWR, WDR and Radio Bremen.
Set in the darkest period of German history, the new season will be set in the dark times of February 1933, when the Nazi Party took power. The director/writer trio of Henk Handlogten, Achim von Borries and Tom Tykwer will return for the finale, with Volker Bruch (Generation War) and Fries (The Wave) reprising their roles of Gereon Rath and Charlotte Ritter.
Shooting on the eight new episodes, which are based on Volker Kutschers fifth novel The March Fallen, will begin in the fall pending the approval of the ARD committees.
Co-producers are Christoph Pellander and Carolin Haasis from ARD Degeto, Manfred Hattendorf and Monika Denisch from SWR and Alexander Bickel and Caren Toennissen-Brand from WDR. Executive producers for X-Filme are Stefan Arndt, Uwe Schott, and Michael Polle and co-producers for Beta Film are Jan Mojto, Dirk Schürhoff and Moritz Herzogenberg.
The series has been a local and international hit, sold into 140 territories with Netflix carrying it in the U.S. MHz Choice recently acquired rights to the episodes and is launching season 4 today.
X Filme Creative Pool bosses Stefan Arndt, Uwe Schott and Michael Polle said: “We would like to thank our partners at ARD and Beta Film for having the courage and trust to bring Babylon Berlin to a real conclusion together with us. Over the many years of this production, the historical past and present have repeatedly intertwined in sometimes frightening ways. We are incredibly grateful that we can now end this cycle with 1933 and show what the end of a democracy looked like. We very much hope that the present won’t repeat the new season.”
Thomas Schreiber, CEO of ARD Degeto Film, said the show “has set standards and proven Germany can produce internationally successful series.”
Jan Mojto, CEO at Beta Film, added: “The New York Times recently published the headline, ‘Babylon Berlin, Babylon America,’ coupled with a call for readers to watch the series to understand the country’s developments and the parallels to the Weimar Republic. Babylon Berlin is not only impressively topical, but it also resonates with audiences everywhere in the world – on both sides of the Atlantic and in over 140 territories.
“In the final season of Babylon Berlin, we put February 1933 under the magnifying glass: Rarely has a society been torn apart more radically in such a short period of time than Germany in this chaotic month,” said Handloegten, von Borries and Tykwer in a statement. “Not only Gereon Rath and Charlotte Ritter, but all our protagonists also must realize that they only have a few options left: Subordinate themselves, risk their lives in open opposition, retreat into inner emigration or flee into exile. However, this decisive month also opens the possibility of changing the course of history at the last second.”
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