The trailer for Slow Horses season 5, coming to Apple TV+ in 2025, didn’t drop on YouTube or on the Apple website, per usual. Instead, the teaser for the darkly funny espionage thriller’s next season is tacked on to the end of the season 4 finale on Apple TV+, which aired Wednesday. But we found the trailer in standalone form on a magazine website, included below.

This time, Slough House IT guy and arrogant doofus Roddy Ho, played by Australian singer and actor Christopher Chung, is at the center of the action. And River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) and Louisa Guy (Rosalind Eleazar) share an awkward kiss for some reason.

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Slow Horses season 4 finale includes season 5 trailer (as season 6 begins filming)

The recently released trailer showcases the Slough House team of remedial MI5 agents facing new dangers, with IT guy Roddy Ho in particular peril. He gets a glam new girlfriend. If you’ve ever heard the expression “honey trap,” you can guess where that leads. The plot, based on Mick Herron’s novel London Rules, (by the way, that title refers to spy slang you should brush up on) also involves protecting the Great Britain’s Prime Minister amid political turmoil and terror attacks. And the badass Cold War spy cred of slovenly Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) comes into play, too. How did he end up running Slough House, anyway?

“At least my lot fuck up on an epic scale,” Lamb shouts at MI5 superiors in the trailer. “They’re not just run-of-the-mill fuckups like yours.” (See more about season 5 below.)

Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) is MI5 second in command under the self-important First Desk, Claude Whelan (James Callis).Photo: Apple TV+

Notably, filming for season 6 is already underway, even as season 4 just concluded, as noted by Hello! magazine, which has the season 5 trailer in standalone form. You can also see it by watching the season 4 finale on Apple TV+. At any rate, the show’s rapid production schedule has been praised by fans, who appreciate Apple TV+’s commitment to releasing a new season annually.

One fan expressed their gratitude on social media: “Every day I’m grateful that didn’t commission #SlowHorses. I watch the finale safe in the knowledge that season 5 is completed and filming for season 6 has already begun. Utter genius television from .”

Chung, who plays Roddy Ho, on set (note his character’s name on the trailer door: “G. Roderick Ho”):

they don’t let the slow horses cast breathe omg back on set for season 6 and season 4 not even done airing yet. this is a real show pic.twitter.com/bFJPYZV4pD
— kelci? () October 7, 2024
What is Slow Horses season 5 about?

As usual, season 5 finds the hapless and harshly judged screw-ups from Lamb’s Slough House in the middle of espionage action. The show uses humor just as the books it’s based on do, but, like those books, it’s a high-stakes thriller.

Here’s the description of the book the season uses as source material (courtesy of Penguin Random House):

At MI5 headquarters Regent’s Park, First Desk Claude Whelan is learning the ropes the hard way. Tasked with protecting a beleaguered prime minister, he’s facing attack from all directions: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat’s wife, a tabloid columnist, who’s crucifying Whelan in print; from the PM’s favorite Muslim, who’s about to be elected mayor of the West Midlands, despite the dark secret he’s hiding; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who’s alert for Claude’s every stumble. Meanwhile, the country’s being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks.
Over at Slough House, the MI5 satellite office for outcast and demoted spies, the agents are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. Plus someone is trying to kill Roddy Ho. But collectively, they’re about to rediscover their greatest strength—that of making a bad situation much, much worse.
It’s a good thing Jackson Lamb knows the rules. Because those things aren’t going to break themselves.
Season 4 villain Hugo Weaving will return … at some point
Jack Lowden, left, as River Cartwright, and Hugo Weaving as Frank Harkness in season 4 of “Slow Horses.”Photo: Apple TV+

Actor Hugo Weaving, featured as the main villain of season 4 in ex-CIA agent Frank Harkness, has hinted at his character’s potential return in future episodes.

“You probably know that Frank is in one of the other books, and so the assumption at the end of this season, and certainly to anyone who has read the books, is that Frank will be coming back,” Weaving said recently.

“Frank gets to play his Get Out of Jail Free card, which he has had all along because he knows that MI5 and David Cartwright tried to set him up. He knows he’s got that, so he can say that fabulous line, ‘I’ll get the next train,'” he added. “He can be that sort of character because he actually is a survivor and excellently slippery.”

Watch Slow Horses on Apple TV+

With season 5 on the way, perhaps by summer 2025, you can stream the first four seasons of Slow Horses on Apple TV+. The service is available by subscription for $9.99 with a seven-day free trial. You can also get it via any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.

After launching in November 2019, “Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service. To date, Apple Original films, documentaries and series have been honored with 515 wins and 2,308 award nominations and counting,” the service said.

In addition to award-winning movies and TV shows (including breakout soccer comedy Ted Lasso), Apple TV+ offers a variety of documentaries, dramas, comedies, kids shows and more.