EXCLUSIVE: The Pogues from OBX are headed for one final epic quest. In a case of good news-bad news for fans, the popular Netflix action-adventure YA series has been renewed for a fifth season, which will be its last. The pickup comes ahead of the Nov. 7 debut of Season 4 Part 2 whose trailer was unveiled Saturday by the cast at Poguelandia LA, a live fan event that is part of Netflix’s Outer Banks on- and off-screen brand expansion.
In a “Dispatch to all Pogues,” which you can read in full below, Outer Banks co-creators and executive producers Jonas Pate, Josh Pate and Shannon Burke explain the decision to end the series after five seasons by recalling how a summer 2017 photo of teenagers on a beach at dusk during a power outage inspired them to conceive the series.
“From this beginning, we imagined a mystery that would lead to a five-season journey of adventure, treasure hunting, and friendship,” they said, admitting that at the time, “it seemed impossible that we would really get to tell the whole five-season story.”
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The trio can now fulfill their original vision and are already working on Season 5, which is currently being written.
“With a little sadness, but also excitement, we’re putting Season Four behind us, and are turning to Season Five, in which we hope to bring our beloved Pogues home in the way we imagined and planned years ago,” they said. “Season Five will be our last season, and we think it will be our best yet.”
In the letter to fans, which the Pate brothers and Burke appropriately signed off with “P4L” (Pogues for Life), they also spoke of Season 4 being their “longest and hardest – but most rewarding – to produce,” teasing “a feature length” finale, “which we think is our best, most powerful episode.”
Outer Banks‘ Season 4: Part 1 debuted at #1 in the global top 10 English TV following its release on Oct. 10. It has remained in the top ten for the three weeks since and is expected to extend the streak to four weeks when Netflix’s next weekly rankings are released tomorrow.
The streamer’s move to release Season 4 in two parts underscores Outer Banks‘ success — the strategy, designed to extend the cultural impact of a season drop, is being utilized for some of Netflix’s biggest hits like Stranger Things, Bridgerton and Emily In Paris.
Indeed, across all four seasons so far, Outer Banks has spent a total of 27 weeks in the global top 10 English TV list, with several more expected on the eve and after the release of Season 4 Part 2.
Launching as a welcome respite in the dark first weeks of the Covid pandemic in April 2020, Outer Banks, set in a North Carolina beach community divided by class into Haves (Kooks) and Have Nots (Pogues), quickly took over popular culture, turning its young cast into teen idols.
Not surprisingly given its YA focus, Outer Banks, in which the Pogues hunt for famous treasures, has become hugely popular on social media. Two of its stars, Chase Stokes and Madelyn Cline, had 6K and 552K instagram followers, respectively, before the series’ debut. Now they are at 8.2M (Stokes) and 16.8M (Cline). Outer Banks clips and memes often go viral, with the Season 4 production wrap video released earlier this year netting 20M views.
Netflix has parlayed that popularity into an annual live music event for fans, Poguelandia (named after the Pogues’ safe haven), whose second edition was held in Santa Monica this past weekend. It features recreation of some of the series’ signature sets, the gang’s trusty van Twinkie, appearances by the entire main cast, Outer Banks-themed food and drinks as well live performances (Jungle, GloRilla and Remi Wolf were this year’s headliners.)
In support of Season 4, the cast of the show also went on a “Pogue Tour” across the US as well as Canada and Brazil.
Other Outer Banks extensions include the recently released mobile game Stories: Outer Banks as well as OBX merchandise from such brands as PacSun, Lottie London and Byrd.
Season 4 sees the Pogues drawn back into the “G” game as they set out to find Blackbeard’s treasure. Like with the Royal Merchant gold and El Dorado, the pursuit is perilous, putting everyone’s lives in danger as they face old and new enemies — and JJ also has to come to grips with the shocking truth about his ancestry.
Season 4 cast includes Chase Stokes (John B.), Madelyn Cline (Sarah Cameron), Madison Bailey (Kiara), Jonathan Daviss (Pope), Rudy Pankow (JJ), Carlacia Grant (Cleo), Drew Starkey (Rafe), Austin North (Topper), Fiona Palomo (Sofia), J. Anthony Crane (Chandler Groff), Pollyanna McIntosh (Dalia), Brianna Brown (Hollis Robinson), Rigo Sanchez (Lightner), Mia Challis (Ruthie) and Cullen Moss (Shoupe).
Josh Pate and Burke wrote half of the Season 1 episode and have co-written together every episode of the series starting in Season 2. Jonas Pate has been directing 6 out of the 10 episodes each season, including every premiere and finale (as well as writing a Season 1 episode.)
Outer Banks is part of Netflix’s YA slate that also includes series hits Wednesday, Stranger Things, Ginny and Georgia, Cobra Kai, Heartstopper, XO, Kitty and My Life With the Walter Boys as well as movies, some of which feature Outer Banks stars, including recent titles Uglies with Stokes and Time Cut with Bailey.
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