Netflix’s Tudum live event might have failed to bring fans any new Outer Banks season 5 news, but thankfully, Drew Starkey came through for the fans!
While hitting the red carpet ahead of the event, Starkey caught up with Variety, where he dropped an exciting announcement about the plans for filming on the final season. “We’re all going back to Charleston, [South Carolina] in about two weeks,” Starkey revealed, confirming filming on the final season will begin in mid-June.
Starkey was unable to share much about the final episodes and what we can expect from the final season of the show, but he did seem to hint that filming will take place for several months. “We’re all going back to Charleston, and that’ll take us through the year. We’re all very, very excited to go back.” That’s right, it seems filming will run deep into the fall, which makes sense as it typically takes several months to film.
His statements align with recent rumors which suggested filming would begin on June 16, 2025, after being delayed a few months from the original production start time of April or May. Because filming won’t begin until mid-June, fans are going to have to wait until 2026 for the final season to arrive. Given how the season ended, there’s no telling what those final episodes are going to hold.
The season 4 finale shocked fans and left us truly gutted. In the closing moments of the season, JJ was murdered by his biological father, Chandler Groff, after he got away with the Blue Crown, bringing about the most shocking death the show had seen. As the season ended, the Pogues vowed to avenge their fallen friend, setting the stage for an epic showdown in the final season between the Pogues and Groff.
Given the death of his character in the season 4 finale, it’s not expected that Rudy Pankow will return for the final season, though we’re hoping he might make a cameo. We do know the rest of the cast is expected to return for the final season, including Chase Stokes, Madison Bailey, Carlacia Grant, Jonathan Daviss, Madelyn Cline, Drew Starkey, Fiona Palomo, Austin North, and J. Anthony Crane.
With filming slated to begin in June, we should soon see the cast giving us our first behind-the-scenes looks at the new season, and more updates on the final season should be coming our way this summer. Hopefully, we'll also start to get some information about the final season including confirmation regarding how many episodes the season will consist of.
It's expected the final season will be 10 episodes, but we've seen Netflix shake things up with its final season orders at times so we'll see where the final episode count lands. What's likely to happen is that we'll see the standard episode season, but perhaps see some longer episodes and possibly get a super-sized series finale.
All we know is that we're excited to see how Outer Banks comes to an end, but we're not ready to say goodbye to Netflix's hit teen drama!