As evidenced by the release of Hobbs & Shaw, Dwayne Johnson is one of the busiest working actors in Hollywood today, but he’ll be clearing a spot in his schedule as he announces season 5 of his HBO dramedy Ballers will be its last. The series launched on HBO in the early summer of 2015, taking audiences into the world of the NFL’s agents, handlers, and financial managers, and the players whose fortunes they try to increase, or, at the very least, protect from the very guys cashing those same checks. Ballers not only starred one of the biggest movie stars going, it also co-starred funnyman Rob Corddry, and introduced many viewers to John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman), as volatile NFL pro, Ricky Jerret.
The series revolved around Johnson’s Spencer Strasmore, a retired ballplayer whose learning the ropes of an entirely new game, despite how closely related it is to the one he once played. Over the past few seasons, Ballers has detailed Spencer’s not so easy climb to the upper echelons of his new profession, as he’s dealt with unruly ballplayers, club owners, head coaches, and rival businessmen, like Andy Garcia’s Andre Allen. And, over the course of four seasons, the show has welcomed Russell Brand, Clifton Collins Jr., Steve Guttenberg, and pro linebacker Terrell Suggs as himself.
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But while HBO would certainly like to keep The Rock in its premium cable family, it seems the time has come for the network to part ways with Ballers, as both HBO and Johnson announced the series would end with season 5 at around the same time. While the network sent out a simple press release detailing what fans can expect from the new season, Johnson took a more emotional approach by speaking directly to his audience via a post on Instagram. Check out Dwayne Johnson’s Ballers season 5 announcement on his Instagram account here:
Though it may be tough for HBO to let the biggest action movie star at the moment go, the decision to end Ballers now actually makes sense for a variety of reasons. The most obvious is that Johnson has been maintaining an absurdly busy schedule for several years, and putting his TV series to bed will likely free up enough time for him to make another huge movie or, maybe hit the gym some more to make the everyone out there feel even smaller in comparison. The same holds true for his co-star Washington, who is starring in two movies due out in 2020. One of them is the film Born to be Murdered, opposite Alicia Vikander, and the other is a small movie called Tenet, directed by Christopher Nolan (perhaps you’ve heard of him?), which is sure to be a huge film next summer.
In all, five seasons is a great run for any series in this era of Peak TV, and it sounds as though Ballers is ending on its own terms, rather than being cancelled. At least for fans of the series they’ll have one more season of Spencer Strasmore running circles around NFL power players.
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Ballers season 5 premieres Sunday, August 25 @10:30pm.
