Wentworth Season 9 Release Date, Cast, And Plot - What We Know So Far

"Wentworth," the gripping Australian prison drama everyone's been binging on Netflix, spends its first seasons telling the story of newly imprisoned Bea Smith (Danielle Cormack) but eventually shifts its focus to a larger cast of characters. Despite their similar premises, "Wentworth" is a noticeably more brutal show than the most obvious comparison, the Netflix Original "Orange Is the New Black," to the point that a closer spiritual cousin might be HBO's violent prison show "Oz." To be fair, though, "Wentworth" is very much a beast of its own. 

For eight seasons, the show hasn't been afraid to put its characters through a wringer, and it's probably safe to assume that fans who are eager to see who survives to see the end of the show simply can't wait for the ninth season to resolve the assorted dangling plot lines. With that in mind, let's take a look at what we know about the release date, cast, and plot of "Wentworth" Season 9, the purported final act of the long-running drama.

Updated August 5, 2021: This article has been updated to include new information about its international and domestic release dates.

After you finish a nice binge of your favorite show, the wait for new episodes can be a long and arduous one. The new season needs to be greenlit, written, and shot. Even after everything's done and the post-production has wrapped, the show needs to find its place in the release schedule — and that's before you take into account all the potential delays and problems the COVID-19 pandemic may cause to the process. Fortunately, none of these hurdles apply to "Wentworth" Season 9, which has already wrapped production and is just waiting to drop on Netflix (per What's on Netflix). 

That being said, you'll still have to wait for a little while if you're a domestic viewer located in the U.S. Season 9 is set to premiere in its native Australia on August 24, and will then air for ten consecutive weeks without hiatus. The series' Australian run ends on October 26, so you can expect the whole final batch of episodes to appear on Netflix in the U.S. the next day, October 27 (via Fansided).

Since "Wentworth" Season 9 is set to be the final season of the long-running series, it's fairly certain that every major character who's still around will get a moment in the limelight. As such, you can expect prisoners like Susan "Boomer" Jenkins (Katrina Milosevic), Ruby Mitchell (Rarriwuy Hick), Marie Winter (Susie Porter), and the undercover officer Rita Connors (Leah Purcell) to appear, along with many other inmates. On the other side of the bars, officials like Vera Bennett (Kate Atkinson), Will Jackson (Robbie J. Magasiva), and Jake Stewart (Bernard Curry) can be expected to make their return. Of course, relative newcomers like Lou Kelly (Kate Box) and Reb Keane (Zoey Terakes) will also likely continue to be an essential part of the story.

This being the final season, it wouldn't be a massive shock if a whole host of former characters of the show would emerge for a victory lap, either. After all, the ending of Season 7 revealed that the dangerous former governor Joan Ferguson (Pamela Rabe) had survived being buried alive, and she indeed returns to torment Season 8. If she can return, who knows? Perhaps even Joan's nemesis and initial main character Bea Smith may make an appearance in some fashion, despite her death in the Season 4 finale.   

"Wentworth" Season 9 will likely pick up where Season 8 left things, and since it's the show's very last batch of episodes, you should expect a great many closures — but not before plenty of dramatic twists and turns. The most pressing plotline will quite possibly be the one concerning Allie Novak (Kate Jenkinson) and Season 8 newcomer, violent cyber-terrorist Judy Bryant (Vivienne Awosoga). Judy is a truly terrifying force who proves her might in Season 8 by stealing Lou's money and machinating the assassination of a high-ranking United States official — and ends the season by stabbing Allie in the shower. Whether Allie survived or not will likely be a pretty immediate concern in Season 9. Meanwhile, Judy might be powerful and dangerous, but she's going to be in a world of trouble if anyone finds out even a fraction of her misdeeds, so it should be interesting to see what happens ... and who ends up facing off with her.

Another major plot point will likely be the ultimate fate of Joan Ferguson, the closest thing the series has to an overarching villain. "The Freak" makes her big comeback in Season 8, and the finale makes it extremely clear that her presence will loom large over Season 9, as well. Joan has major bones to pick with a great many people, so the final season of "Wentworth" is virtually guaranteed to be an extremely eventful and dramatic one.