After picking up Western crime drama Longmire from A&E last year, Netflix has renewed the series for a fifth season. Season four, which (spoiler alert) depicted Wyoming county sheriff Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) pursuing his wife’s murderer after determining the perpetrator, debuted on the streamer in September. On Friday, Netflix announced the news of the 10-episode renewal on its Facebook page.
“We’ve never been one to back down from a fight,” the company said a statement. “Longmire will return to Netflix for season five.” While Netflix doesn’t release viewership numbers, there’s definitely still demand for the series: as of press time, the statement garnered nearly 75,000 likes, over 16,000 shares, and many, many positive comments on the Facebook post announcement.
The series, which is based on the thriller novels by the Wyoming-based Craig Johnson, was axed by A&E in 2014, even though it was the network’s second most-watched show with an average of 5.6 million viewers (via Wall Street Journal). At the time, A&E explained that the show’s older demographic (the average viewer age was 60) wasn’t preferable for advertisers. “We sell the shows to advertisers based on the demographics of 18-49 and 25-54, and the audience just wasn’t there,” A&E SVP Dan Silberman told WSJ.
As mentioned, Netflix picked up season four in November 2014. “When Warner Horizon Television came to us with the idea for a new season of Longmire, we were intrigued because the series is so unique, and consistently great,” said VP original content Cindy Holland to Variety. “We are thrilled to help continue Walt Longmire’s story for his large and passionate following.”
Longmire also stars Katee Sackhoff, Lou Diamond Phillips, Bailey Chase, Cassidy Freeman, and Adam Bartley. Hunt Baldwin, John Coveny, Greer Shephard, and Michael M. Robin exec produce.
The streaming giant hasn’t yet announced a release date for season five.
