Paramount+ renewed Tulsa King for Season 5 on Monday, October 5, with the elegance of a mob boss settling a debt before anyone asks for it. Season 4 has not even premiered yet. It lands Friday, October 16, on Paramount+. Our full Tulsa King review and episode guide is here if you need the catch-up. And while you are deciding whether Dwight “The General” Manfredi deserves a fifth tour, the show has already quietly done the most interesting thing in its announcement: it is moving the whole operation home.
The New York move is the real story
Season 5 shoots in New York, not Georgia, and that decision cuts two ways. On the story side it is obvious and long overdue: Dwight is a made man from New York who spent 25 years in a federal prison and got exiled to Tulsa by his own family. The show has spent four seasons watching him build an empire in exile. Season 5 sends him back to the turf that made him, which means old grudges, unfinished business and the mob family that threw him out.
On the money side, it is New York’s film tax incentive doing what it has been doing to productions statewide. Variety reported back in June that the writers’ room was open and the relocation was coming, driven by both budget and storyline. New York has boosted its incentive program twice in three years under Governor Hochul, now up to a 30% rebate that matches Georgia’s. The studio is not leaving Tulsa out of creative restlessness. It is following the math, and it is building the next season around the story that math supports.
What the people making it are saying
Drew Brown, EVP of physical production at Paramount Television Studios, issued the studio statement: “We are thrilled to bring fans even more of this incredible series, and to be shooting the next season of Tulsa King in New York, where Dwight Manfredi’s story will continue to evolve.” He added that the company remains proud of its work in Georgia. That is corporate for “the incentives were better,” but it is also the first time the studio has publicly committed to where Dwight goes next, which is not a company hedging against a soft landing.
Stallone himself, speaking to ScreenRant in September 2025 about sticking with the role, was more honest than any press release: “What’s the moral of that story is never listen to an actor. If he has a hit going, he is not walking away, it’s too rare.” He admitted he originally wanted out after two seasons, then changed his mind the moment the show connected: “You love sequels anyway, so just go for it. Forget your age and just keep pumping away.”
One caveat worth knowing, because it explains the show’s uneven middle chapters: the showrunner chair has been musical chairs since the start. Terence Winter left the showrunner role after season one over creative differences, Dave Erickson took season three, and season four shot without a named showrunner at all, per US Magazine. Taylor Sheridan, who created it, famously handed the keys over early. Head writer Winter is back for season 5 and the production’s confidence looks total, but this is a show that has found its footing in spite of its own chair.
The cast is getting a New York accent
Four new series regulars join for the Big Apple chapter: Erik Palladino, Glenn Fleshler, Anthony Skordi and Nickola Shreli, a lineup that reads like a mob-drama all-star draft (Fleshler from Billions, Shreli from Power Book IV). Stallone’s daughter Scarlet Rose Stallone, who has played Spencer since day one, finally gets the series-regular bump she has earned. Season 4’s own guest list, for the record, already includes Neal McDonough, Gretchen Mol and Kevin Pollak as Dwight fights to legitimize the empire while corrupt politicians and a crushing personal loss close in.
Our call
Will Tulsa King keep going after season 5? We say yes, with reasonable confidence, through at least season 6 or 7. The evidence: a renewal granted before the previous season aired is a streamer betting its slate on you, the physical infrastructure is being relocated at real expense specifically to keep the show alive in a cheaper state, and Stallone has publicly talked himself into staying “forever” twice now. Paramount+ built its entire identity on the Sheridan machine, and this is one of its few non-Yellowstone winners with real legs. The Samuel L. Jackson spinoff Frisco King sitting in development says the franchise thinking is bigger than one season count.
What changes our mind: season 4 ratings slipping hard once the novelty of Tulsa is gone, or Stallone’s film calendar eating him alive. He is 80, he is still doing the Rocky victory lap with a Creed sequel cycle, and he called making this show “brutal” compared to movies. The man who said he only wanted two seasons is now four deep, so we would not bet against him walking at six either.
What do you think
Honest question for the fans who came for the fish-out-of-water thing: does Dwight belong in New York? The entire appeal of this show was a 21st century godfather confused by Oklahoma. Send him home and you gain mob-drama depth and lose the joke that built the show. Season 4 premieres October 16, and season 5 is already in the ground filming. Would you follow The General back to the neighborhood that exiled him, or was Tulsa the whole point? Tell us, we read everything.