Apple TV+ Shelves One Spy Drama as Another Returns for Season Five
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Apple has pulled its new thriller The Savant from the Apple TV+ premiere schedule, just days before the new limited series, starring Jessica Chastain, was set to debut. The show had been slated to launch on Friday, September 26, but now there’s no word on when (or if) it’s coming.
Meanwhile, the streaming service’s popular dark but funny UK spy series Slow Horses debuted its fifth season this week.
The Savant
Apple has removed mentions of The Savant’s scheduled premiere from its social media, and the TV app now merely shows the series as coming “at a later date.”
Apple has yet to announce a new premiere date for the show, although its official press page says its premiere date is “coming soon.” Nevertheless, the series will be forced to sit in the wings until a new date is announced.
The Savant stars Jessica Chastain in the lead role, playing a woman known as “the Savant” who researches and infiltrates online hate groups as she works to prevent large-scale attacks in the real world. In addition to Chastain, the eight-episode limited series stars Nnamdi Asomugha, Cole Doman, Jordana Spiro, Trinity Lee Shirley, Toussaint Francois Battiste, and guest stars Pablo Schreiber.
In a statement to Deadline, Apple said that “After careful consideration, we have made the decision to postpone The Savant. We appreciate your understanding and look forward to releasing the series at a future date.” The company hasn’t provided any further context as to the decision to pull the show.
While few details have been shared about the plot of the new series, its theme of radical online hate groups and political violence has led to speculation that Apple pulled The Savant from its schedule due to recent world events, including the assassination of conservative political analyst Charlie Kirk.
Following Apple’s announcement, series star Jessica Chastain released her own statement on Instagram, saying that while she values her partnership with Apple, she’s “not aligned” with the company’s decision to pause the show’s release, as she believes it’s more important than ever to tackle these difficult subjects.
This isn’t the first time Apple TV+ has delayed a season of one of its shows. Production of the third season of Tehran was completed in 2023, and it has already been aired on Israeli broadcaster Kan 11. However, it has yet to run on Apple TV+ — likely due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Tehran is an Israeli spy thriller television series created by Moshe Zonder. The series, written by Zonder and Omri Shenhar and directed by Daniel Syrkin, debuted in Israel on June 22, 2020, and internationally on Apple TV+ on September 25, 2020. The series features dialogue in Hebrew, Persian, and English, and follows an Israeli Mossad agent of Iranian Jewish descent on her first mission in Tehran, Iran’s capital, which is also her birthplace.
Slow Horses
The hit spy drama Slow Horses premiered its fifth season today on Apple TV+. The first episode of the new season is available to watch now, and the remaining episodes will be released weekly, every Wednesday, through October 29, when the sixth and final episode of the season will stream.
The darkly comedic spy series, starring the always superb Gary Oldman, has proven to be popular with both critics and audiences alike. Adapted from a series of novels, Slough House, by Mick Herron, Slow Horses follows an MI5 unit considered the bottom rung of the spy ladder, where disgraced or failed agents are typically assigned. The motley yet skillful crew of agents is led by Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman). The series also stars Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sophie Okenedo, Jonathan Pryce, Saskia Reeves, Rosalind Eleazar, and Christopher Chung.
This season, the action continues as Oldman and his team navigate the world of espionage.
In season five of “Slow Horses,” everyone is suspicious when resident tech nerd Roddy Ho has a glamorous new girlfriend, but when a series of increasingly bizarre events occur across the city, it falls to the Slow Horses to work out how everything is connected. After all, Lamb knows that in the world of espionage, the London Rules — cover your back — always apply.
Slow Horses seasons 1-4 are available for viewing on Apple TV+ if you’d like to catch up before viewing the new season. They’re a relatively quick watch, as each season consists of six one-hour episodes that cover the plot of a single book in Herron’s series. The Slow Horses will also ride on for at least two more seasons after this, as Apple has already ordered sixth and seventh seasons of the series.
