Lucifer Season 5 Release Date, Cast, Plot, And Spoilers

It has been a wild ride for fans of the devilish police procedural Lucifer, based on the DC Comics character created by Neil Gaiman. After the titular fallen angel spent three seasons charming the pants off us on the show's original network, Fox, the series was canceled. Thankfully, Netflix immediately scooped it up for a fourth season. After some uncertainty about Lucifer's future, the streaming giant announced that the show would be returning for a fifth season.

This was great news, as season 4 was a wild ride that ended with some pretty extreme developments. We were introduced to Lucifer's (Tom Ellis) old flame, Eve (Inbar Lavi), we saw the kidnapping of the half-angel baby, Charlie, and everything was capped off with Lucifer descending to Hell in order to prevent an ancient prophecy about evil taking over the Earth from coming true. It was a lot for viewers and the characters to process and, thankfully, we will get a final season to wrap everything up.

As for when we can expect to see season 5, who is confirmed to be coming back, and where the story is going to go, we have lots of details to sift through while we wait for the premiere. Let's get into everything we know about Lucifer season 5.

On September 5, 2019, the Netflix-affiliated Twitter account See What's Next tweeted a photo of the cast with the caption, "#Lucifer Season 5 starts filming tomorrow!! Can't wait." Another production update came in February 2020, when showrunner Ildy Modrovich took to Twitter to announce, "Last day in [the Lucifer writer's] room. They'll always be my family."

All of this good news came before filming was halted, along with most other TV and movie productions, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As mentioned, filming was well underway before production went on hiatus — and even before then, Netflix announced plans to split season 5 into two halves, airing two sets of eight episodes with a break in between (via TVLine). That said, there was always the chance that the first half of the fifth season would debut without a hitch. And that's essentially what's gone on.

On June 23, 2020, Netflix announced that the first half of Lucifer season 5 will hit the platform on August 21.

There hasn't been a shortage of casting news for Lucifer's fifth season. Based on the members of the cast featured in the tweet announcing the beginning of filming, we can safely say that series regulars like Tom Ellis, Lauren German, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Rachael Harris, Kevin Alejandro, and Aimee Garcia are all coming back.

In February 2020, Entertainment Weekly confirmed that Inbar Lavi would be returning to play Eve on season 5. Another exciting returning player was confirmed shortly after filming began in 2019: Tricia Helfer, who played Charlotte way back on season 2, will be returning to the show, although there's some speculation about whether she'll be reprising her role or appearing in another one altogether (via TVLine).

We've also learned about some new additions to the cast. In a series of tweets, the Netflix news source What's on Netflix announced that Matthew Bohrer, Erin Cummings, Brianne Davis, Catherine Dent, and Chaley Rose would appear on the new season. Pop star Debbie Gibson will also be appearing in an announced musical episode (via Entertainment Weekly).

There's one last important piece of casting news to get to. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, the fifth season will feature 24 alum Dennis Haybert as none other than God — not a bad role for the veteran TV actor!

Season 4 ended with a huge shift for the series. After many years on Earth, Lucifer accepted his role as the ruler of Hell, descending into the underworld to sit on his throne. What does this mean for season 5?

Showrunners Joe Henderson and Ildy Modrovich spoke to Entertainment Weekly about season 5, and while they didn't give any specifics, they did tease that the fifth season would be going for broke. Henderson said they'd devised multiple "awesome" ways to bring Lucifer back from Hell. Meanwhile, Modrovich described the ethos of how they were approaching season 5, saying, "If everybody is speculating on one thing, we just try to think as a bats*** as we can, as outside of the box as possible, so that people don't get bored, so we don't get bored."

One out-of-the-box direction the show will be going in its fifth season is the inclusion of theme episodes. Entertainment Tonight and Entertainment Weekly confirmed that there will be a 1940s noir-themed episode, as well as a full-on musical episode. How these particular digressions from the series' modern setting will come about has yet to be announced.

We've been getting some pretty good kernels of information about what to expect from season 5's story, but proper spoilers have been few and far between. There has, however, been some speculation that might give fans who are anxious to know how the fifth season will unfold something to chew on.

On May 20th, Digital Spy reported a theory based on a set photo tweeted by showrunner Joe Henderson. The photo features series leads Tom Ellis and Lauren German lying on the grass in a beautiful garden. Given how idyllic the setting looks, writer Joe Anderton surmised that perhaps the scene was meant to be set in the Garden of Eden, meaning the fifth season of the show will potentially be bringing its characters to the celestial realm. 

Another bit of spoiler chatter for Lucifer's final season was that it wouldn't actually be the final season after all. Although the original announcement came with the caveat that season 5 would be the show's last, rumors swirled that Tom Ellis was preparing to sign a contract to return to the show for a sixth season (via TVLine). On June 23, 2020, it was confirmed that Lucifer had indeed picked up a season 6 renewal. That season will be, in the words of the Lucifer Twitter account, the "FINAL final" season.