With how quickly Slow Horses is scoring renewals, it feels like the Apple TV+ drama can just keep going. And it is: Season 8 is now officially happening. The news came the day after it won an Emmy for Outstanding Directing (for Season 5) and the day before the next season premieres.
Slow Horses follows Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and a team of British intelligence agents who serve in the dumping ground department of MI5 — Slough House — due to their career-ending mistakes.
The sixth season premieres on September 16, and we already knew the show is coming back for a seventh. Read on for everything we know about Slow Horses Season 8, from the cast to the Mick Herron book on which it will be based.
Has Slow Horses been renewed for Season 8?
Yes! The news came on Tuesday, September 15.
“Slow Horses continues to charm audiences all around the world and I’m delighted that Jackson Lamb and his gang of lovable misfits will be back for an eighth season. Their acerbic take on the high-octane world of espionage is completely unique,” said Jay Hunt, creative director, International, Apple TV, in a statement.
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When does Slow Horses Season 8 premiere?
If the series continues to follow the pattern it has, it will likely premiere in fall 2028.
Season 1 was released in April 2022, Season 2 in December 2022, Season 3 in November and December 2023, and Season 4 in September and October 2024. Season 5’s release will be in September and October 2025. Season 6 premieres on September 16, 2026. Season 7 is already filmed, and it could either be released in early or fall 2027. That will determine when Season 8 premieres, and it could be early or fall 2028.
On which Mick Herron book is Slow Horses Season 8 based?
The first five seasons of Slow Horses each cover one book of Herron’s series: Slow Horses, Dead Lions, Real Tigers, Spook Street, and London Rules. Season 6 is based on the sixth and seventh books, Joe Country and Slough House. Bad Actors, the last novel published, was adapted for Season 7.
Season 8 is adapting Clown Town, the ninth book in Mick Herron’s book series. The synopsis reads:
“‘Old spies grow ridiculous, River. Old spies aren’t much better than clowns.’ Or so David Cartwright, the late retired head of MI5, used to tell his grandson. He forgot to add that old spies can be dangerous, too, especially if they’ve fallen on hard times — as River Cartwright is about to learn the hard way.
David Cartwright, long buried, has left his library to the Spooks’ College in Oxford, and now one of the books is missing. Or perhaps it never existed. River, once a “slow horse” of Slough House, MI5’s outpost for demoted and disgraced spies, has some time to kill while awaiting medical clearance to return to work, and starts investigating the secrets of his grandfather’s library.
Over at the Park, MI5 First Desk Diana Taverner is in a pickle. An operation carried out during the height of the Troubles laid bare the ugly side of state security, and those involved are threatening to expose details. But every threat hides an opportunity, and Taverner has come up with a scheme. All she needs is the right dupe to get caught holding the bag.
Jackson Lamb, the enigmatic and odiferous head of Slough House, has no plans to send in the clowns. On the other hand, if the clowns ignore his instructions, any harm that befalls them is hardly his fault. But they’re his clowns. And if they don’t all make it home, there’ll be a reckoning.”
Smith had also revealed to TV Insider in October 2024, “Mick has talked about doing a standalone, not from a book, so I’m sure that’s possible” and that there’s quite a bit of “material in the Slough House world to be mined,” including “a couple of novels that Mick’s done that introduced characters that then come into Slough House that flesh out the backstories.”
What is Slow Horses Season 8 about?
According to Apple TV, the eighth season of this darkly humorous spy drama will see “Jackson Lamb and Diana Taverner face off in their most explosive confrontation yet. When a botched attempt to blackmail the Park puts Taverner on the offensive, it is up to Lamb to unravel one of MI5’s darkest secrets and put an end to it once and for all.”
Who is in the Slow Horses Season 8 cast?
Season 6 stars Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves, Christopher Chung, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Rosalind Eleazar, Joanna Scanlan, Samuel West, Ruth Bradley, Tom Brooke, Jonathan Pryce, and Hugo Weaving. Lenny Rush is a new addition. Olivia Cooke returns as Sid Baker.
We’ll have to wait to see the events of Seasons 6 and 7 to begin speculating about who would be back.
Slow Horses is produced for Apple TV by See-Saw Films, with Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Douglas Urbanski, Adam Randall, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gail Mutrux, Billy Bowring, Helen Gregory, Mick Herron, and Oldman serving as executive producers. Season 8 is adapted for television and executive produced by Ben Vanstone, with Adam Randall set to return as director.
Will there be a Slow Horses Season 9?
Chances are there will be. It’s very much a hit. And should the series continue beyond Season 8, there are also novellas that can be adapted. Plus, we have a feeling there will be another Slough House book.
“I know that Gary has expressed a desire to play Lamb forever and that Mick [Herron] is still writing the books, so I hope it will go for as long as people want it,” Slow Horses executive producer Will Smith shared with us in October 2024.
Oldman told TV Insider in August 2026, “Mick’s going to keep writing books, I guess. And if Apple is happy with us and keeps writing the checks, they’re the ultimate — they’ll be the ones to keep it going or end it.”
Slow Horses, Season 6 Premiere, Wednesday, September 16, Apple TV