Orange is the New Black promotes two actors before season 5 premiere

With the Orange is the New Black season 5 premiere coming onto Netflix on Friday, June 9, Netflix is thinking towards the future and why shouldn’t they be? This show is such a heavy hitter for them and always has awards buzz surrounding it.

The upcoming sixth season of the show will be filming in the up coming months, and producers are deciding who they want to lock in as regulars moving forward. At the moment, there are two names worthy of reporting.

Dale Soules – According to a new report from Deadline, Soules is going to be coming on board season 6 as a regular in the role of Frieda. She’s been around the show in one way or another since the second season of the show, but we don’t really know a lot about her. What we do know is that she’s comfortable with killing, hiding bodies and is working with Alex to help her cover up her mistakes last season.

While it’s likely she will have a big role to play over the intense fifth season (which is set over three days in the aftermath of Poussey’s death and the riots to come), this is evidence that there are some significant long-term plans that the show has for the character when the action likely slows down. While not confirmed, it would make some sense for Orange is the New Black to shift away from the 24 esque model for their already-renewed sixth season.

Jessica Pimentel – Meanwhile, Deadline also reports that Pimentel, who has been a part of the show since the second episode as Maria Ruiz, will also be a regular moving forward. This is one of those promotions where you seriously wonder why it didn’t happen beforehand, and one of the biggest reasons for that may just be that the show has such an enormous cast that it’s hard to service every single storyline in a large-scale manner.

Should we look at these promotions as a sign that some series regulars are exiting the show? Not necessarily, but the idea of this is something that makes sense when you remember that this is prison, and eventually people are going to be shuffling their way in and out. Or, given the contentious climate, it’s fairly easy to imagine someone else dying.

Happy to hear about some of these Orange is the New Black promotions, or will you be even happier when season 5 premieres? Share now in the comments below!

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