MOVIE NEWS – The Slow Horses star – Elrond in The Lord of the Rings, Agent Smith in The Matrix – has confirmed that he will return for season 5.

Who doesn’t enjoy a good actor absolutely shining in the role of a big bad guy? That’s at least part of the appeal of Hugo Weaving’s diabolically evil character in the series Slow Horses. The acclaimed Australian actor, known for his roles as Elrond and Agent Smith, among others, first appeared in the Apple TV+ series in season four, changing the game for the sometimes dysfunctional MI5 agents. It looks like his character, Frank Harkness, will return for the already confirmed fifth season of the series starring Gary Oldman.

According to Variety, during a presentation at the International Film Festival of India in Goa, Weaving confirmed that Harkness will return, and revealed that he will be traveling to London in January for a two-and-a-half-month shoot. Whether that includes a role in the also-confirmed sixth season remains to be seen.

Slow Horses has been a massive hit on the streaming service.

The series follows a peculiar team of MI5 agents assigned to Slough House, a rundown outpost of the spy agency, led by Gary Oldman’s gruff old man Jackson Lamb. Based on Mick Herron’s thrilling spy novel series Slough House, each season of the TV series focuses on a book, which introduces a new case, with new characters who try to hinder the team in all sorts of ways.

As Weaving explained:

“Each season generally is a book, but also each season departs a little bit from those books. We’re getting to the point with Slow Horses where the seasons are catching up to the amount of books that [Mick] Herron has written.”

What is Slow Horses about, and who is Frank Harkness?

Slow Horses follows River Cartwright (played by Jack Lowden) and his colleagues, a group of decommissioned MI5 agents who are reassigned to desk work as they try to re-enter the world of spies. The latest, fourth season, is considered the best – which is probably why the series was renewed for two more seasons. The series also stars Kristin Scott Thomas, Rosalind Eleazar, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Saskia Reeves, Christopher Chung, Chris Reilly, Kadiff Kirwan, and Jonathan Pryce.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

As for Weaving’s role in the series – and this next paragraph will be full of spoilers, so if you’re not already into the series or don’t want to know more, maybe stop reading now! – Frank Harkness is a diabolical figure: an American mercenary and former CIA agent who decided to impregnate women around the world, take their children from them, and raise them as secret assassins… supposedly outside the intelligence system. (Spoiler alert: many intelligence agencies around the world used him and his murderous children for these “preemptive assassinations”, as Harkness described them…)

One such kid is the River Cartwright lookalike (also played by Lowden), who has been wreaking havoc on the series for years. So we can safely say that Harkness and his many “children” will continue to cause severe headaches for the team…

Source: Variety