The Pogues are gearing up for their final adventure
Pogues, assemble! Season 4 of Outer Banks may have left fans on a low note — death! vows of revenge! everyone is really sandy! (so, the lowest of notes, really) — but all that means is that the anticipation for Season 5 is high. Of course, even the promise of a new chapter of the Netflix drama, which is somehow both a packed action-adventure story and a chill hangout, comes with a twinge of bittersweetness, too. (Pogues just can’t win, can they?) Series creators Josh Pate, Jonas Pate, and Shannon Burke announced ahead of the conclusion of Season 4 that the fifth outing of Outer Banks will also be its last.
Now, before you paddle out to the middle of the ocean in despair, the Outer Banks creators made it clear in their announcement of the final season that this was actually always the plan, saying that from the beginning they “imagined a mystery that would lead to a five-season journey of adventure, treasure hunting, and friendship.” While fans will surely miss spending time with John B (Chase Stokes) and his Pogue crew, there is something to be said for letting a show go out on its own terms, as intended. If that still offers you no comfort, perhaps it will help knowing that Stokes himself is having a tough time with the news, noting his “heavy heart” while he thanked the Outer Banks fans in his own statement, but promising “it’s always gonna be Pogues 4 Life.”
But before Outer Banks takes its final bow, there is a whole lot of story left to tell. Find out where the treasure hunt will take the Pogues next as we keep you updated on everything you need to know about Outer Banks Season 5.
Outer Banks
Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix
Outer Banks Season 5 latest news
It’s true: the fifth season of Outer Banks will be its last. In an interview with Netflix’s Tudum, the Pates and Burke made it very clear that Season 4 “sets the stage for an epic fifth and final season” and that Season 5 will carry on the most recent season’s story, saying that the hunt for the Blue Crown (now in the hands of the villainous Chandler Groff, played by J. Anthony Crane), “should carry us through all the way to the end.”
What will Outer Banks Season 5 be about?
In a word: revenge. Season 4 ended with the shocking death of beloved Pogue JJ Maybank (Rudy Pankow), who was stabbed by his newly discovered biological father, Chandler Groff, just as JJ had claimed the priceless Blue Crown for the Pogues after tracking it (and Groff) all the way to a small village in Morocco. Groff takes the crown and leaves JJ for dead in the arms of Kiara (Madison Bailey) before running off to Portugal to try to sell the treasure for an insane amount of money. JJ dies telling Kiara he loves her, and she can’t do anything but watch (if love were enough!!). The Pogues bury JJ in the desert and vow revenge for their fallen friend.
All of this means that in Season 5, we can expect a trip to Portugal to make good on that vow. While making Groff pay for what he did, and, hopefully, stealing back the Blue Crown, will be top priority, there are some other threads that will surely be revisited in the new season. Sarah (Madelyn Cline) and John B are expecting — oh, you know that Pogue-let (Cleo’s words) will be named JJ — Cleo (Carlacia Grant) is nursing a bullet wound from Lightner (Rigo Sanchez), and Pope (Jonathan Daviss) is nursing some PTSD from being the one to kill Lightner, while also having his possible enlistment in the Marines hanging over his head.
While we don’t yet have a ton of details on what exactly Season 5 will bring, in a postmortem interview with Deadline, the show’s creators did drop a lot of hints, including the fact that Rafe’s (Drew Starkey) story is very much not over, and he and his recently dumped fiancée, Sofia (Fiona Palomo), will “both be back” for Season 5: “We have plans for both of them. We love Drew and we think he can do anything, so he’s heavily involved in our seconds for next year,” Josh Pate told the outlet.
They also mentioned that “Kiara is going to be the spine [of] the season the way JJ was of [Season 4],” and that there are some big plans to “honor” the newest Pogue, Cleo, too.
You can also be sure that while John B and Co.’s last big adventure will bring them to Portugal, and perhaps other international locations, the story of Outer Banks will end back where it all began, in North Carolina. According to the show’s executive producers, “when we get to the end, I think everyone’s going to be satisfied that we bring everything home and all the stories are wrapped up.” That’s a big promise, but every Pogue has all of their fingers and toes crossed that it is a promise kept.
When is Outer Banks Season 5 coming out?
It’s hard to say at the moment! The Season 5 scripts are still being written, and according to Deadline, there are “tentative” plans to start production in Spring 2025 — which could mean we won’t get the conclusion to this treasure hunt until 2026.
Outer Banks Season 5 cast
We’re still waiting on more intel about who we can expect to return for Outer Banks‘ swan song, but unless we’re getting some new flashbacks or some drug-induced hallucinations, it’s a safe bet that Rudy Pankow won’t be returning as the late, great JJ Maybank. RIP, sweet Pogue Prince!
Chase Stokes as John B. Routledge
Madelyn Cline as Sarah Cameron
Jonathan Daviss as Pope Heyward
Madison Bailey as Kiara Carrera
Carlacia Grant as Cleo
Drew Starkey as Rafe Cameron
Fiona Palomo as Sofia
You can also expect Season 4’s Big Bad, Chandler Groff, to be back at it, which means it’s likely J. Anthony Crane will return to portray one of the most hated men on the planet. Fun!
