‘Bojack Horseman’ season 5: everything we know about the Netflix show’s return

Let's head back to Hollywoo

In an increasingly crowded market, Bojack Horseman might the funniest, most moving grown-up cartoon on the internet. Bojack (voiced by Will Arnett) is a talking horse who hit the big time as the star of a saccharine ‘90s sitcom called Horsin’ Around (geddit?) but is now in his 50s, washed-up and spending too much time boozing and moping about his huge LA apartment.

He lives in Hollywoo, so named because Bojack knocked the ‘D’ off the Hollywood, and is – dubiously – guided through life by his almost equally dysfunctional friends. The Netflix show is hilarious yet dark-as-fuck, at times seeming more like a drama than a comedy. After four seasons, we know that it’s bloody brilliant either way.

Latest updates:

  • First full trailer for Bojack Horseman season 5 released

Will there be a season five of Bojack Horseman?

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Darn tootin’! No need for a long face, because the show was renewed for its fifth season just weeks after the fourth season became available to stream on Netflix. The news was unveiled in two titillating ways.

First, Will Arnett tweeted a photo of the series’ first episode, penned by Kate Purdy, who’s been writing sporadically for the show since 2014. That back in September, suggesting work had been underway on the season for some time. Oh, if only we could know the contents of that script!

There was also an official video from Netflix around the same time. In the cartoon clip, we see a close-up of Bojack’s phone as he receives a string of texts from a contact saved as “clingy Netflix exec”.

The messages read: “Hey Bojack, it’s Netflix… We would have called but we remember how angry you were last time we interrupted your nap… Anyway, big news!… You’re back for a Season 5! See keep up the good work and see you on set soon!”

Which characters will return?

 All of ‘em! Who else could voice sardonic Bojack but Will Arnett? Aaron Paul will be back as dopey Todd, while Amy Sedaris will once again voice the sassy yet pragmatic Princess Carolyn. Chuck in Paul F. Thomas as relentlessly earnest Mr. Peanutbutter (also a ‘90s sitcom star – and a dog) and Alison Brie as his wife, the writer Diane Nyugen, for a fifth season that’ll reunite the gang.

When will season five of Bojack be available to stream on Netflix?

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It was officially confirmed on June 27 that Season 5 will debut on Netflix on September 14. In a tweet to a fan, BoJack himself announced the news, writing: “wooowwww congratulations you are the 10000000 person to ask that question your prize is the answer sept 14th now please stop asking me” See that tweet below.

Is there a Season 5 trailer?

Yep! A full trailer for the new season has now landed. In it, things don’t look to be going so well for Bojack. The sentence “You say you want to get better but you don’t know how?” is repeated three times across the trailer. Will he figure it out?

Meanwhile, earlier this year Netflix shared the first image from the new episodes, which you can see below.

What have the cast or creators said about the show?

Speaking to NME last year, Arnett told us: “Fame and Hollywood are just an efficient vessel in which to deliver this message on depression, because that’s an exaggerated lifestyle – a heightened reality – and you can really put a fine point on it. A lot of people that end up going into this business are very broken and looking for validation; it’s funny that they’re ultimately searching for it from millions of people they don’t know.” Not bad for a show about a cartoon horse, eh?

BoJack Horseman
BoJack Horseman

What will happen in the fifth season?

Speaking about the next season of the show, creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg said: “All right, season five of BoJack Horseman, here we go. Has it really been five seasons? Where does the time go, huh? Anyway, this season finds BoJack starring in a new TV show called Philbert, playing a character with disturbing parallels to BoJack’s real life, echoes that force BoJack to confront himself and his past in ways large and small, but the main thing that happens this season is Diane gets a haircut. We spent a lot of time figuring out the haircut — the style, the volume, the bounce, the sheen — and we’re really proud of the way it came out. We really think people are going to like this new season, and Diane’s new haircut!”

We left Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter as they attempted to navigate the ups and downs of their relationship, with mixed results, while Bojack became closer to Hollyhock, a 17-year-old who’s recently entered his life. So, it would be fair to expect we’ll see those relationships continue to deepen.

For all Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter’s rough patches, there’s a mutual understanding that suggests they can stay the course (see the moment in the finale where she breezily forgave him for missing their date because he was soaking up the adoration of fans).

Less certain is the future of Bojack and Hollyhock’s relationship. At the end of season four, she told him that didn’t need a “father” figure but could maybe do with a “brother”. Given that she’s a preternaturally smart and mature 17-year-old and he’s an overgrown man-child, that dynamic could be mutually beneficial.

Hell, the last time we saw goofy Todd and switched-on Princess Carolyn, he was giving her life advice, so Bojack Horseman is all about role-reversals right now. As with all good dramas, the writers know characters’ relationships must ebb, flow and develop – as in real life – to keep things moving.

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