Grace and Frankie fans celebrated on social media when Netflix confirmed in February 2018 that its original comedy series was returning in 2019 for Season 5.
The streaming service made the announcement on February 14, 2018, nearly a month into Season 4 of the series.
Grace and Frankie Season 4 premiered on January 19, 2018, with Friends star Lisa Kudrow joining the cast in a recurring role as Grace’s manicurist Sheree, and Peter Gallagher as Grace’s rich boyfriend, Nick Skolka.
Grace and Frankie’s return for Season 5 will make the comedy series Netflix’s fourth original series — besides talk shows, children’s shows and revivals — to have reached Season 5. Although Netflix has lots of original shows, only three, Orange is the New Black (TV series 2013-), Bojack Horseman (TV series 2014-), and House of Cards (TV series 2013-2018), have ever reached Season 5.
Netflix also announced in February, 2018, that Grace and Frankie Season 5 will guest-star RuPaul, host and producer of RuPaul’s Drag Race (see tweet below), as Benjamin Le Day.
This. Just. Happened. pic.twitter.com/0UXSwk7Ymk
— Grace and Frankie (@GraceandFrankie) February 14, 2018
The comedy series follows the lives of two seniors, Grace (Jane Fonda) and Frankie (Lily Tomlin), whose husbands, Robert Hanson (Martin Sheen) and Sol Bergstein (Sam Waterston), divorced them for a same-sex relationship with each other. The shared misfortune brings the frenemies together as they struggle to find new lives for themselves.
The show’s first two seasons received mixed reviews, but the critical reception became more positive in Season 3. Grace and Frankie Season 4 is the highest-rated of the series so far, and the final episode of the season was critically acclaimed.
The show has acquired a fan base and resonated with a wide audience, including younger viewers, despite being centered on the lives of two seniors.
“It is fascinating, we have a much younger audience than we thought we’d ever get,” co-creator Marta Kauffmann told IndieWire. “Jessica Biel just posted herself nursing her baby and watching ‘Grace and Frankie.’ Miley Cyrus likes the show.”
Grace and Frankie has also revived multiple award nominations. Tomlin was nominated in 2016 for the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV series (Comedy or Musial). Fonda and Tomlin were nominated in 2017 for Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, and Tomlin once again in 2018.
Congratulations to @devorahherbert for her @TheEmmys nomination for Outstanding Production Design on Grace and Frankie! ??? pic.twitter.com/rfgIxz5liW
— Grace and Frankie (@GraceandFrankie) July 13, 2018
While fans await the return of Grace and Frankie to Netflix in 2019, we bring you everything known so far about the upcoming Season 5 of the popular comedy series.
#GraceandFrankie has been renewed for season 5! https://t.co/uLWznviG6N
— Us Weekly (@usweekly) February 15, 2018
Grace and Frankie Season 5 premiere date
UPDATE: Grace and Frankie Season 5 will premiere on Netflix on January 18th, 2019, the streaming giant has revealed.
Grace and Frankie Season 5 will premiere in 2019, but Netflix has not announced an official air date. While we await the official announcement, new fans of the comedy series who have not seen the previous seasons can watch them on Netflix.
Impatient fans have been trying to guess the premiere date for Grace and Frankie Season 5, but there doesn’t appear to be any obvious pattern to past release dates that could help in the guessing game.
Grace and Frankie Season 1 premiered on Netflix on May 8, 2015, while Season 2 premiered on May 6, 2016. However, Season 3 premiered on March 24, 2017, while Season 4 premiered on January 19, 2018.
Many fans have expressed the hope that Season 5 will premiere in early 2019, and there is currently a rumor making the rounds online that the new season is set to premiere on January 18, 2019.
Netflix has not officially announced any premiere date for the highly-anticipated upcoming Season 5.
every grace and frankie premiere I’m cryin pic.twitter.com/jyyxvqTKsn
— steph (@stephssdubois) October 8, 2018
Grace and Frankie Season 5 details
Grace and Frankie was created by Marta Kauffman and Howard J. Morris. Kauffman is best known as the co-creator of Friends (TV series 1994-2004) with David Crane.
Kauffman and Morris are also executive producing Grace and Frankie with Paula Weinstein, John Hoffman, Tate Taylor (Pilot), Billy Finnegan, Robbie Tollin, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Alexa Junge, and Skydance Production’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross.
The show stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen, Sam Wasterston, Brooklyn Decker, June Diane Raphael, Ethan Embry, and Baron Vaughn.
Photos from the set of Grace and Frankie Season 5
Production of Grace and Frankie Season 5 apparently started in March 2018. Season 5 set photos showing members of the cast were posted to the official Grace and Frankie Twitter account last March.
Is that Kyra Sedgwick??? Why yes, it is! #FemaleFilmmakerFriday pic.twitter.com/mxXh3k86g5
— Grace and Frankie (@GraceandFrankie) March 10, 2018
On @GraceandFrankie set this week with the amazing @kyrasedgwick directing! pic.twitter.com/UNfFyac9xY
— Tim Bagley (@iamtimbagley) March 10, 2018
It appears from the set photos that Kyra Sedgewick, known for her role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the TNT crime drama series The Closer (2005-2012), is directing at least one episode of Grace and Frankie Season 5.
Grace and Frankie Season 5 Trailer
Update: Netflix released an official trailer for the upcoming Grace and Frankie Season 5 on January 8, 2019. The new official trailer features RuPaul.
Netflix has not yet released a trailer for Season 5 of Grace and Frankie. But fans are expecting it to be released by December 2018. We will update readers as soon as the trailer is released. Meanwhile, here is the trailer for the fourth season of the series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKMC6HViGTM
Grace and Frankie Season 5 cast
All the main cast members of Grace and Frankie are expected to return for Season 5.
Grace and Frankie stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the titular roles of Grace Hanson, a retired cosmetics business owner, and Frances “Frankie” Bergstein (nee Mengela), an eccentric former art teacher.
The two were brought together after their husbands divorced them for a same-sex relationship.
Martin Sheen portrays Grace’s former husband Robert Hanson, a divorce lawyer.
Sam Waterston plays Frankie’s former husband, Sol Bergstein, also a divorce lawyer.
Other members of the main cast include June Diane Raphael, who plays Brianna Hanson. Brianna is Grace’s older daughter with Robert. She is the head of Grace’s cosmetics company.
Raphael is best known for her role as Julie Gristlewhite in the comedy series Burning Love (2012-).
Brooklyn Decker plays Mallory Hanson, the younger daughter of Grace and Robert. Mallory is married with four children.
Baron Vaughn plays Nwabudike “Bud” Bergstein, the adopted son of Frankie and Sol. He practices as a lawyer at Robert and Sol’s firm.
Ethan Embry plays Coyote Bergstein, Frankie and Sol’s son. Ethan is a substitute teacher and recovering addict.
RuPaul, the Emmy Award-winning host and executive producer of RuPaul’s Drag Race, will guest-star on Grace and Frankie Season 5 as Benjamin Le Day. RuPaul’s character, Benjamin Le Day, is a “formidable and quick-witted adversary who faces off with Grace and Frankie,” according to Netflix.
RuPaul has appeared on a number of other TV series, including Netflix’s short-lived Girlboss (2017), in which he portrayed Sophia’s (Britt Robertson) neighbor Lionel. He also appeared as Gil on truTV’s Adam Ruins Everything (TV series 2015-), and as Marcel on Broad City (TV series 2014-).
Netflix has not confirmed how many episodes of Grace and Frankie Season 5 that RuPaul will be appearing in, but fans are hopeful he will appear in several.
Deadline reported in April 2018 that Jackson Pace, who appeared in the Showtime series (2011-) Homeland as Nicholas Brody’s (Damian Lewis) son, Chris Brody, will play a recurring role in the upcoming fifth season of Grace and Frankie as Luke.
Although Netflix has not officially confirmed which of the recurring cast members are returning for Season 5, it is likely that the former Friends star Lisa Kudrow, who guest-starred in Season 4 as Grace’s manicurist Sheree, is returning for Season 5.
Other recurring cast members, including Tim Bagley as Peter, Peter Cambor as Barry, Talia Shire as Teddie, and Jack Plotnick as Paul, are also expected to return.
Grace and Frankie co-creator Kauffman revealed in an interview with IndieWire’s Liz Shannon Miller at SCAD aTVfest 2018 in Atlanta, that the storyline for Season 5 could explore new love interests and returning love interests for both Grace and Frankie. Kaufman also revealed that Nick Skolka (Paul Gallagher), whose company Omni Tech stole Grace and Frankie’s Vybrant vibrator design, but later became her boyfriend, will return for Season 5.
Kauffman admitted that although she was able to get stars such as Fonda, Tomlin, Sheen and Waterston, she was not able to get all the actors she wanted for her characters.
According to Kauffman, during the casting process they reached out to some actors who said they didn’t “want to do television.”
“A lot of people [want to do TV] but there are a lot of people who don’t, who still have a certain judgment about it,” she said.
Grace and Frankie season 5 plot
Grace and Frankie tells the story of two elderly women, Grace (Jane Fonda) and Frankie (Lily Tomlin), whose husbands, Robert Hanson (Martin Sheen) amd Sol Bergstein (Sam Waterston), divorce them to marry each other. The shared misfortune brings the frenemies together. The forge a bond and together face the challenge of building their post-divorce lives.
In Season 4, Grace and Frankie have some hair-raising adventures, including driving a mobile scooter under the influence of alcohol and hitting a police car. They also drive to the U.S.-Mexico border with their infant grand-daughter in the backseat.
After they are scammed off their money by an unscrupulous contractor, their children decide it is time that they enter an assisted-living facility. In the final episode of Season 4 the pair discover that their children have sold their beach house and want them to join a retirement community.
Sol and Robert also make an effort to revamp their flagging relationship. They go for therapy and accept the suggestion to try an open relationship, but it does not go as well as they had hoped.
Although the finale does not give a strong hint about what to expect of Season 5, it opens up a broad scope of storyline possibilities for the new season. Kauffman told IndieWire at SCAD aTVfest in Atlanta in February 2018 that the writers were already working on stories for Season 5 and that the new season will pick up where Season 4 left off.
“The way it is with every season, the hope is that you’ve left enough good bird seed that you can find your way,” Kauffman said. “That’s the hope is you’ve dropped all these clues that we can as writers take advantage of in the next season. You want stories to continue and not just to stop.”
Kauffman had previously revealed in an interview with Deadline that she deliberately avoided making the series plot-driven or tied to any events in real life, especially politics. She revealed that the writers took care to ensure that nothing happens in the series that makes it impossible to continue indefinitely.
“The show isn’t about politics and I don’t want it to be topical. Once you make it topical it gets very, very difficult to have it continue to air at all times and not feel dated. I’m in the business of entertaining people,” Kauffman told Deadline. “I’ve never thought about how long the show needs to be… but yes, I think the show can go on further.”
According to Kauffman, she will continue with the show for as long as Netflix wants it and for as long as Jane and Lily feel fit to continue, considering their age.
“I’d probably tell them (Netflix execs), ‘Let’s do it as long as it’s still comfortable for Jane and Lily,'” Kauffman said. “They (Fonda and Tomlin) are doing well. It [the show] could be years and years. Who knows?”