Poldark season 5 spoilers: A new sort of Ross origin story lies ahead

Right when you think you know everything there is to know about Ross, Poldark season 5 is ready to surprise you once more. We’ve seen this man already undergo some career changes — think in terms of soldier, mine owner, and now politician. Why not go ahead and add secret agent to the mix?

While we’re sure that there are a ton of people out there who will want to feed this immediately into Aidan Turner being James Bond (trust us, we get it), we don’t think that writer Debbie Horsfield wrote a new “role” for Ross Poldark into the story so that Turner could better audition for 007. There is something a little bit larger going on here, and it’s tied to the original Winston Graham source material.

Speaking via Digital Spy, Horsfield makes it clear that Ross’ transition into secret-agent-of-sorts is something deeply rooted in the books, and the opportunity to explore this new origin story is something that she was eager to explore in the final season:

“We ended series four based on [novel] The Angry Tide, and then there is a time jump in the books to The Stranger From The Sea … But in The Stranger From The Sea, [author] Winston Graham gives all sorts of hints about things that happened in the meantime. We meet [Ross] again in book eight and he’s on a special mission for the British government in Portugal – and so the question is, how did he get from being a politician and mine owner to basically being a spy?

“What was the journey that he went on? And so that was my starting point, to try and flesh out that story.”

Curious in some other Poldark video discussion? Then take a look at some of what we’ve got for you below! Once you do that, be sure to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube for more updates.

Maybe we don’t see in Portugal in season 5 — in a lot of ways, it wouldn’t make sense to see it! This is a character still on the road to that and if there are time jumps in season 5, they aren’t going to be anywhere near as severe. The goal is to show the evolution of these characters, but not take them in a direction where they are totally different. Aidan Turner has already said that he’s open (in theory) to returning as Ross years down the road, so maybe you can see The Stranger From the Sea play out then.

Poldark season 5 will premiere on BBC One on July 14; it should return to PBS this fall.

What do you most want to see when it comes to Ross’ story on Poldark season 5?

Be sure to share in the comments and check back soon for some other news. (Photo: BBC.)