‘Slow Horses’ Renewed for Season 8 Before Season 6 Even Premieres

Apple TV clearly has no plans to send the Slow Horses out to pasture anytime soon.

Slow Horses has officially been renewed for Season 8, with the news arriving Tuesday, September 1, just one day before the Gary Oldman-led spy drama returns for its sixth season. Even by the increasingly confident standards of an established hit, having three seasons essentially lined up at once is a pretty strong vote of confidence.

The eighth season will consist of six episodes and adapt Clown Town, the ninth novel in Mick Herron’s Slough House book series. Gary Oldman will return as the wonderfully cantankerous Jackson Lamb, while Kristin Scott Thomas will return as Diana Taverner.

According to Apple, Season 8 will bring Lamb and Taverner into what the streamer describes as their most explosive confrontation yet. A failed attempt to blackmail the Park puts Taverner on the offensive, leaving Lamb to dig into one of MI5’s darkest secrets before bringing the situation to an end.

“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,” Jay Hunt, Apple TV’s creative director of international, said in announcing the renewal.

The timing also gives Apple something else to celebrate. The renewal arrives immediately after Slow Horses picked up an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series, with Saul Metzstein winning for the Season 5 finale, “Scars.”

Three Seasons of Slow Horses Are Now on the Board

Fans certainly won’t have to worry about the future of Slough House for a while.

Season 6 premieres Wednesday, September 16, with its six episodes rolling out weekly through October 21. The season adapts Joe Country and Slough House, the sixth and seventh novels in Herron’s series, and finds the Slow Horses on the run as Taverner pulls them into a dangerous game of retaliation and revenge.

Oldman is joined in Season 6 by 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, with Lenny Rush joining the ensemble.

Then there’s Season 7, which Apple already ordered in July 2025. That season is based on Herron’s Bad Actors, meaning Apple has now secured the future of the series all the way through its adaptation of Clown Town. Season 8 will be adapted for television by executive producer Ben Vanstone, while Adam Randall is set to return as director.

It’s an unusually comfortable position for fans in a streaming landscape where viewers often spend months wondering whether their favorite shows will survive. Slow Horses hasn’t even opened the doors on Season 6 yet, and Apple has already made sure Jackson Lamb will be around for two more seasons after it.

For now, though, all eyes turn to Season 6. Slow Horses returns September 16 on Apple TV.