‘Babylon Berlin’s Season 5 Trailer Feels Dreadfully Familiar
The trailer for 'Babylon Berlin's final season feels uncomfortably like modern times.
Of all the historical period dramas and future dystopia series that accidentally became a little too topical when they debuted in 2017, Babylon Berlin is the one that cuts closest to home. The series – originally a co-production between Germany’s public broadcaster ARD and the U.K.’s Sky – would have been a stereotypical film-noir police procedural in some timeline. However, the 2016 election took the Weimar Republic-set mystery and turned it into a parable of how fascism rises in a sleeping democracy.
The series lucked out in timing, with Seasons 1 through 3 released globally on Netflix during the height of the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, and turning the series into a cult hit as the subversive highlighting of wanton police brutality deployed by the government during moments like the historical Workers Day Riots struck a little too close to home.
It took several years, and a move by the series to niche streaming service MHz Choice, before Season 4 finally crossed the pond in 2024. By that time, Sky (which had been bought out by Comcast in the interim) walked away from the project, leaving ARD scrambling to fund the show’s final season. It took a veritable consortium of backers, but the series’ final season – covering the five short weeks over February 1933 when German democracy collapsed – finally has a trailer and a release date.
Here’s the synopsis for the show’s final season:
Berlin, January 30, 1933: Adolf Hitler becomes Reich Chancellor. As the end of the Weimar Republic looms, the darkest chapter in German history begins. On March 5, 1933, new elections will give Hitler’s party complete power. But in these five weeks preceding the election, every single person in Germany is faced with difficult decisions: to adapt, to risk open opposition, or to flee. And while Gereon disappears from the face of the earth, Charlotte digs deep into a mysterious case of a series of murders of former front-line soldiers. There are growing signs that there is a direct link to Gereon’s past – and that of the new Reich Chancellor…
Volker Bruch (The Girl in the Spider’s Web) and Liv Lisa Fries (Freud’s Last Session) are confirmed to return to reprise their roles of Gereon Rath and Charlotte Ritter. The rest of the returning ensemble includes Christian Friedel (The Zone of Interest) as Reinhold Gräf, Hannah Herzsprung (The Bloom of Yesterday) as Helga Rath, Lars Eidinger (All The Light We Cannot See) as Alfred Nyssen, Karl Markovics (The Regime) as Samuel Katelbach, Peter Kurth (SOKO Wismar) as Bruno Wolter, Matthias Brandt (Dark Woods) as August Benda, and Sebastian Urzendowsky (Borgia) as Max Fuchs.
The director/writer trio of Henk Handlogten, Achim von Borries, and Tom Tykwer will also return for the final season, penning all eight episodes and splitting helming duties. The series will be co-produced by Christoph Pellander and Carolin Haasis from ARD Degeto, Manfred Hattendorf and Monika Denisch from SWR, and Alexander Bickel and Caren Toennissen-Brand from WDR. Stefan Arndt, Uwe Schott, and Michael Polle executive produce for X-Filme alongside Jan Mojto, Dirk Schürhoff, and Moritz Herzogenberg for Beta Film.
Babylon Berlin Season 5 is scheduled to debut as a binge in Germany on Thursday, September 10, on the ARD app. The eight-episode series will then follow with a broadcast debut in two parts, with the first four episodes airing on Saturday, September 19, and the final four one week later on Saturday, September 25, 2026.
Season 5 is expected to cross the pond to stream on MHz Choice before the end of 2026. Seasons 1 through 4 are currently streaming.
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