When Sky Deutschland announced in June 2023 that it would no longer commission original scripted series from 2024, the future of an iconic German period drama was thrown into doubt.

Babylon Berlin debuted in 2017, bringing together a writer-director team of Achim von Borries, Tom Tykwer and Henk Handloegten to adapt Volker Kutscher’s crime novels set in the German capital in the 1920s. Sky and local broadcaster ARD partnered on the ambitious new series, reported to cost €25m (US$29m today).

Set during the latter years of the Weimar Republic, beginning in 1929, the story centres on police inspector Gereon Rath, who is sent to Berlin on assignment from Cologne to dismantle an extortion ring, and Charlotte Ritter, a police clerk who aspires to become an inspector herself.

Season two also aired in 2017, before S3 arrived in 2020 and S4 in 2022, each continuing the show’s ambitious storytelling, superb acting performances and groundbreaking production and music design that made the German-language drama a standout around the world.

When Sky stepped away from original scripted series, von Borries, Tykwer and Handloegten found themselves in a “tough moment.” But buoyed by the success of the series, its partners pulled a budget together to ensure Babylon Berlin would have a fifth and final season. It is produced by X Filme Creative Pool in coproduction with ARD Degeto, WDR, SWR, HR, Radio Bremen and Beta Film in collaboration with RBB.

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