Well, it’s a strange game indeed. In a bit of shocking news, Slow Horses showrunner Will Smith (Veep) announced today that, after Season 5 wraps its run, he will no longer be at the helm of the Apple TV+ hit series. The show has already been renewed for Seasons 6 and 7 before Season 5 even premiered. Along with the announcement, Smith wrote a heartfelt farewell to fans of the series.
In his official statement, the showrunner and writer was blunt about the creative process of the highly acclaimed series and revealed that it all boils down to quality. So far, the thriller series has been able to keep a perfect track record, with an overall score of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes for the four seasons that have been released so far. That certainly puts increasing pressure on a writer to keep outdoing themselves over and over, and Smith wrote about it in his statement:
“I think it’s a big show and it’s an intense process. And I suppose I didn’t want to lose the sense of fun of it. There’s two things. One, there’s the risk that you’ll start to run dry or repeat, which you have to watch. And so, it’s just getting ahead of that, and knowing when the right time is for you to give it over to somebody who can give it some new energy and freshness. And then it’s likely that the schedule of it just becomes something that can be slightly daunting after a while. It feels like I might not be giving you my best work if I continue at this pace… I do want to emphasize, it’s not in any way that I thought I’m now too good for ‘Slow Horses.’ It’s much more that I want to keep being good enough for ‘Slow Horses.’ And I would never want it to be like, ‘Oh, that one wasn’t quite there.’ It’s just that risk of just pushing it too far. And I just felt, I just want to go when I know I’m still delivering my very, very best for all the people that work on the show.”
Who Is Taking Over ‘Slow Horses’ After The Showrunner’s Exit?
Deadline revealed that two new writers will helm the production of Slow Horses‘ next two seasons. Season 6 will have Gaby Chiappe (Misbehaviour) as the boss and Ben Vanstone (All Creatures Great & Small) is set to control Slough House and its agents in Season 7. Smith hinted that this delegation of work is due to the series’ unique production process. He revealed that while they were “writing of series 5, we were shooting series 4 and editing series 3.” This means that Smith was essentially overseeing the production of three seasons of television at the same time.
Smith indicated that his exit was friendly and that he likes to think of the cast and crew as his friends. Additionally, he is not stepping down from Slow Horses to take a vacation: he is still working on the TV adaptation of the best-selling novel Caledonian Road and is gearing up to start filming The Siege, a thriller movie based on the book by Ben Macintyre.
Apple TV+ debuts Season 5 of Slow Horses on September 24.
via Collider