The burners still weren’t off, but the message coming out of the kitchen last night sounded like a last call: multiple reports indicated that “The Bear” is expected to wrap with its upcoming fifth season on FX and Hulu.
The most direct push came from Jamie Lee Curtis, who has recurred as Donna Berzatto since the show’s second season—and who has now spoken about the series as if the endpoint is already common knowledge. On a red carpet stop tied to her new projects, the actor said, “Everybody’s confirmed the show is ending!” before adding that if it doesn’t, “then I’ve completely blown it.”
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Curtis had already set off the initial wave of speculation in mid-February with an Instagram post celebrating the end of her work on season five, writing that she was “completing the story of this extraordinary family.”
There’s an important caveat, though: FX and Hulu still haven’t formally announced that season five is the final season, and no premiere date has been confirmed.
What is official is the fifth-season pickup itself. Back in July 2025, John Landgraf announced the renewal in a statement praising the show’s viewership and calling it “one of the best shows on television,” while noting that the creative team would “continue to tell this magnificent story.” The renewal came right after the fourth season’s release, which followed Carmy, Sydney, and Richie’s attempt to keep leveling up the restaurant while deciding what, exactly, they’re willing to sacrifice to get there.
As for where things stood on the ground in Chicago, local reporting earlier this year cited the Illinois Film Office saying season five was expected to finish filming in March. That tracks with the broader sense, right now, that the fifth season isn’t some distant possibility—it’s the next (and potentially last) course already being plated.
The obvious question is what “ending” actually looks like for a series that became a cultural shorthand for ambition, burnout, and the razor-thin line between craft and self-destruction. The show’s engine has always been its pressure cooker: Carmy’s need to prove something to himself, Sydney’s vision and limits, Richie’s hunger to matter, and the family wreckage orbiting the dining room like a second menu. If season five is truly the close, it has a chance to do what so few modern hits manage—leave the table on its own terms, with a finish that doesn’t feel like an extension or a retreat, just the end of the meal.
