The Bear is indeed closing its doors with season five.
FX on Wednesday announced a June 25 premiere date for the Emmy-winning series and for the first time confirmed that season five will be the last one for The Bear. All eight episodes will stream on Hulu at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT that day, exactly a year after the premiere of season four. The final season will also air on FX’s cable channel, with two episodes on the premiere date and weekly airings through early August.
Season five being the end for The Bear hasn’t exactly been a secret — cast member Jamie Lee Curtis said as much in a red-carpet interview in early March. Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, though, FX had declined to comment on whether it would be the final season.
The final season confirmation comes a day after The Bear released a surprise flashback episode, titled “Gary,” that centers on Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Mikey (Jon Bernthal) taking a work trip to Gary, Indiana, some time before the events of the main series. Moss-Bachrach and Bernthal wrote the episode, and series creator Christopher Storer directed.
Season five will take place immediately after the events of season four’s finale. The logline reads, “The fifth and final season of The Bear picks up the morning after Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie and Natalie ‘Sugar’ (Abby Elliott) discover that Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) has quit the food industry, leaving the restaurant to them. With no money, the threat of a sale and a torrential storm in their way, the new partners must band together with the rest of the team to achieve one last service, hoping they’ll finally earn a Michelin star. Ultimately, they learn that what makes a restaurant ‘perfect’ might not be the food, but the people.”
Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas and Matty Matheson also star, with Ricky Staffieri, Oliver Platt, Will Poulter and Curtis in recurring roles.
FX Productions is the studio for The Bear. Storer executive prdouces with Josh Senior, Cooper Wehde, Tyson Bidner, Matheson, Hiro Murai and Rene Gube. Courtney Storer is culinary producer.