Babylon Berlin is one of the most successful formats that the German series landscape has ever produced and is celebrated by numerous fans both nationally and internationally. According to the broadcaster, the series can be viewed around 94 million views record.
After Sky left the series as co-producer and investor last year, the future of the crime hit seemed uncertain for months after the fourth season. Now it’s official: There will be a 5th season of Babylon Berlin However, this also seals the end of the series.
Babylon Berlin Season 5 continues with Volker Bruch and Liv Lisa Fries
As the ARD officially announced on its website, the fifth season will be produced without the support of Sky by the ARD Degeto together with X Filme Creative Pool, SWR, WDR, Radio Bremen and Beta Film. The directors and authors of the previous seasons – Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Hendrik Handloegten – are currently in the final stages of the script work, which they are developing based on the novel Märzgefallene * by Volker Kutscher.
Frédéric Batier, ARD/SKY
Volker Bruch and Liv Lisa Fries in Babylon Berlin
The shooting, for which Volker Bruch will also return as Gereon Rath and Liv Lisa Fries as Charlotte Ritter, is scheduled to take place in October 2024. It is not yet clear when the new episodes will reach us. However, since the production of the series usually takes about nine months, a start not before the end of 2025 or 2026 to be expected.
Babylon Berlin is approaching the year 1933 ‒ and with it the end of the series
Already at the beginning of the series, the creators around Tykwer, von Borries and Handloegten announced that they wanted Babylon Berlin to end in 1933 with the Nazis seizing power. This is exactly where the plot of the series has arrived in the 5th season and thus takes place around two years after the events of season 4which can be dated approximately to the year 1930/31.
In the official announcement, Tykwer, von Borries and Handloegten write:
In the final season of ‘Babylon Berlin’ we lay the February 1933 under the magnifying glass: Seldom has a society been thrown out of joint so radically in such a short time as Germany in this chaotic month. Not only Gereon Rath and Charlotte Ritter – all of our protagonists have to realise that they have only a few options left: to conform and subordinate themselves, to risk their lives in open opposition, to retreat into internal emigration or to flee into exile. But this decisive month also opens up the possibility of changing the course of history at the last second.
Do these last lines suggest a Tarantino trick à la Inglourious Basterds that will rewrite the story for this final season? We can certainly look forward to it.
Podcast in Pride Month 2024: How queer is the world of series really?
At Streamgestöber we do a reality check on how LGBTQ+ friendly series in 2024 actually are:
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Even in 2024, it is still necessary to examine the queer-friendliness of the series landscape. Although the largest streaming provider Netflix has many queer characters and LGBTQ+ inclusive series available to stream, this unfortunately does not represent the rest of the streaming world.
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