Netflix megahit Money Heist to end with fifth and final season, adds 2 to cast

The heist is coming to an end.

Netflix’s international juggernaut Money Heist is returning for one last season. The upcoming fifth season will be its last, EW can exclusively reveal, and production will begin Monday in Denmark before filming in Spain and Portugal.

When we last saw them, The Professor's (Álvaro Morte) team was declaring war on the authorities during their job at the Bank of Spain as he was discovered by Alicia Sierra (Najwa Nimri), the inspector who's been chasing him.

A heist began to save Rio (Miguel Herrán), but it cost them beloved team member Nairobi (Alba Flores). The show will be entering uncharted territory when it returns, going beyond the heist to avenge her death.

"We are moving from a chess game – a mere intellectual strategy – to a war strategy: attack and contention," series creator Alex Pina tells EW of the gang avenging their fallen comrade. This new goal raises the stakes while keeping the story fresh and maintaining the adrenaline that has always run through Money Heist. The war they've been pushed to start results in "the most epic part of all the parts we've shot," according to Pina.

The Professor and his team’s world will have some new faces in it next season. Actors Miguel Ángel Silvestre (above), known for playing Sense8’s Lito, and Patrick Criado (below) are joining the ensemble cast. While Pina didn't reveal full details about the new faces and how they'll fit into the story, he did tease what they'll bring to the final season. "We always try that our opponents be charismatic, intelligent, shiny," he explains. "In this case, in pure war film genre, we also look for characters whose intelligence can measure up against The Professor’s."

Pina also says audiences will get to know Denver's childhood friend Manila (Belén Cuesta) much better over the final 10 episodes, and teases a standoff between Sierra and The Professor.

"Adrenaline is within Money Heist’s DNA. Every thirty seconds things take place and disrupt the characters, a turn of the screw to the action. The adrenaline mixed with feelings arising from absolutely complex, magnetic, unforeseeable characters will continue until the end of the heist to the Bank of Spain," Pina says. "However, the gang will now be pushed into irreversible situations, into a wild war: it is the most epic part of all the parts we’ve shot."

Watching The Professor’s intricate plan come to life has grabbed the attention of tens of millions of Netflix subscribers. Not only is Money Heist one of Netflix's most popular shows of all time, but it is also the most popular non-English series from the streamer; part 4 of the crime drama, which premiered in April 2020, was watched by 65 million accounts in the first four weeks of release — that's a million more than Tiger King, which premiered a month earlier, and just two million less than Stranger Things 3, which debuted in summer 2019.

Pina points to the show's constant movement between action and emotion, as well as its underlying messages, to its global appeal. From heists to standoffs, the series has always centered the gang and their stories. "It is action and feeling, it is black comedy and drama, romance and pathos," he shares. As for the themes of the show, Pina says viewers relate to the political and socioeconomic stance of The Professor's team. What makes the citizens on the show rally behind the gang has also worked in getting audiences on their side.

Money Heist Parts 1-4 are available to stream on Netflix.

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