The fifth and final season of the American comedy-drama television series The Bear premiered with all eight episodes on June 25, 2026, on FX on Hulu. Series creator Christopher Storer returns as showrunner for the season, and directs all but one episode. Jeremy Allen White reprises his role as Carmy Berzatto, an award-winning New York City chef de cuisine, who returns to his hometown of Chicago to run his deceased brother Michael's failing sandwich shop.
The majority of the season takes place over a single day, picking up the morning after the previous season's finale, in which Sydney, Richie and Natalie learn that Carmy has quit the food industry and left the restaurant to them. With no money, the threat of a sale and a torrential storm in their way, the new partners must band together with the rest of the team to achieve one last service, hoping to finally earn a Michelin star. The season features an original score composed by Christian Lundberg for Bleeding Fingers Music and produced by Hans Zimmer, eschewing the series' previous trend of using popular music for its soundtrack.
The season was met with critical acclaim, with reviewers praising it as a return to form for the series after the third and fourth seasons, and a satisfying conclusion for the series.
Cast
Main Jeremy Allen White as Carmy Berzatto Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richie Jerimovich Ayo Edebiri as Sydney Adamu Lionel Boyce as Marcus Brooks Abby Elliott as Natalie Berzatto Matty Matheson as Neil Fak Liza Colón-Zayas as Tina Marrero Edwin Lee Gibson as Ebraheim
Recurring Oliver Platt as Jimmy "Cicero" Kalinowski Jose Cervantes as Angel Richard Esteras as Manny Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna Berzatto Brian Koppelman as Uncle Computer Will Poulter as Luca Sarah Ramos as Jessica Ricky Staffieri as Theodore Fak
Elsie Fisher as Terry "Cheese" Cheddario Rene Gube as Rene Corey Hendrix as Gary "Sweeps" Woods Paulie James as Chuckie Andrew Lopez as Garrett Christopher Zucchero as Chi-Chi
Chris Witaske as Pete Katinsky
Guest David Zayas as David
Carmen Christopher as Chester Deirdre O'Connell as Mary Heyman
Brad Morris as Allan Mitchell
Peter Grosz as Mr. Dearborn Harry Lennix as Mr. Brooks Tom Skilling as himself
Jon Bernthal as Michael Berzatto Molly Gordon as Claire Dunlap Josh Hartnett as Frank Bonnie Hunt as Sue Gillian Jacobs as Tiffany "Tiff" Jerimovich Gary Janetti as Mr. Clark Mitra Jouhari as Kelly John Mulaney as Stevie Bob Odenkirk as "Uncle" Lee Lane Annabelle Toomey as Eva Jerimovich Robert Townsend as Emmanuel Adamu
Episodes
Production Development In July 2025, the series was renewed for a fifth season. In May 2026, it was confirmed to be the final season.
Writing Credited writers for season 5 include Christopher Storer, Rene Gube, Karen Joseph Adcock, Catherine Schetina, Rachel Wiggins, and Nicole Kohut. Seven of the eight episodes cover the events of just one day.
Costuming Carmy's "iconic Gael Jacket...arguably the piece that turned The Bear into the menswear phenomenon that it became" makes a final appearance. Richie returns to his "Chicago tracksuit" roots. For his first international flight, he wears an Adidas Firebird jacket, a "staple" design since the late 1980s. Sydney's rainy-day trench coat is Maison Margiela's "Peached Coat," which retails for £2,150.
Filming Principal photography was set to begin on January 5, 2026. Filming locations reportedly included Ukrainian Village, and the Green Door Tavern adjacent to Mr. Beef. Filming wrapped by March 28.
Cinematographer Andrew Wehde, who has filmed every episode except the original pilot, told Gold Derby about shooting seasons 1 through 4, "I always feel like if its color looks the same and it's being lensed the same way with the same camera, I can kind of do anything I want outside of that. Season 5 changes a little bit from there. So we do things differently, and that's our first big change."
During an interview about "Gary", Ebon Moss-Bachrach told USA Today, "I found making season 5 to be a really glorious experience. It felt like a real kind of magnum opus for the whole show...Hopefully [I'm] not tempting fate, I'm really, really proud of it. It's not easy to end something, and I think we went about it in a bold, bold way."
Music Christian Lundberg told the Go See Talk film podcast about composing the season 5 score, "They started sending episodes about a month out to completion, and there's eight episodes, from 22 minutes to an hour. And I thought it was gonna be six to eight minutes an episode. I just had to go fast, and no doubts, because if you start doubting yourself you're gonna get stuck...At a certain point, [the episodes] got to be 80 percent score almost, which I did not expect that at all."
Release The season was preceded by the special episode "Gary", which was released without an advance marketing campaign on May 5, 2026. The following day, FX and Hulu jointly announced that the final season would premiere with all eight episodes on June 25, 2026, on Hulu, as well as internationally on Disney+. A weekly broadcast on FX would also begin on the same day with two episodes, followed by one episode weekly thereafter. The season also marks the first returning FX on Hulu series to receive a simultaneous release on both Hulu and the linear FX channel following a change in the latter's programming release strategy.
Reception On Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 77 critics gave the fifth season a positive review, with an average of rated reviews of 8.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "The Bear closes out its final season with the character-driven finesse that it started with, ensuring its story and fans are served the finest of televisual meals without diminished returns." Metacritic assigned it a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 based on 28 reviews, signifying "universal acclaim" reviews.
References
External links The Bear at FX The Bear at Hulu