Animal Kingdom renewed for season 5 by TNT; what’s next?

Animal Kingdom season 3

While this news is hardly a surprise, it is certainly fantastic to hear — Animal Kingdom is coming back for a season 5!

This morning, TNT confirmed the news in a new statement, noting that the new season of the Ellen Barkin – Finn Cole drama has reached almost 18 million viewers across all platforms and viewing methods. In terms of live viewing, season 4 is down slightly versus season 3, but judging from the statement it is making up for that decline with increases in other measurements. Stability has been one of Animal Kingdom’s greatest calling cards, alongside having a great core of characters who you feel compelled to watch … even if they’re bad people. One of the greatest calling cards of executive producer John Wells is showing dysfunction — look at this show alongside Shameless.

Want some Animal Kingdom video coverage? Then watch our discussion on this past episode in our latest video below! Be sure to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube so you don’t miss out on our weekly Animal Kingdom videos and also view our show playlist.

So what could an Animal Kingdom season 5 look like? Depending on what happens later this season, it’s going to look and feel different than anything that we’ve had a chance to see before. Barkin’s character of Smurf has cancer, so the writers have backed themselves up into a corner in terms of what they want to do with this character. Are they going to make her diagnosis suddenly go away? That seems unlikely. It’s conceivable that she survives another season but sooner or later, this is a character that is going to pay the metaphorical piper and we have to prepare for that.

If Smurf does die at the end of this season, what we could end up seeing is a fifth season that is about the Cody Boys all jockeying in order to obtain control of her crime empire and much of what she had going for her for the better part of her life. This is the sort of thing that they would realistically do, since there’s nothing that people within a criminal empire want more of than power — with the exception of maybe Deran, who seems more interested right now in protecting his relationship.

Related News Be sure to get some more news information on what lies ahead

Want more news on Animal Kingdom and what’s ahead?

Then head over to the link here, where you can get additional details. Meanwhile, let us know in the comments what you think about the renewal. (Photo: TNT.)

Love TV? Be sure to like Matt & Jess on Facebook for more updates!