Chase Stokes says Outer Banks cast is ‘ready to be done’ with show

Netflix will release the show’s fifth and final season in 2026

Chase Stokes has opened up about the end of Outer Banks after over six years of the hit Netflix show.

The 33-year-old actor, who has played John B. Routledge on the show since its premiere in 2020, said he and his co-stars are welcoming the end of the globally popular series, saying the cast is “thankful for the run, and we’re ready for it to be done.”

“We want the story to end on the right note versus [turning] four seasons into season nine and we're going after aliens or something,” he told People. “We want to cut the cord before we lose the plot.”

The fifth and final season is slated to come out in the new year after it recently wrapped up shooting in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and South Carolina. After Stokes posted on Instagram about the end of shooting just last week, he teased that the series finale is “exactly how I was told when I started the show.”

Outer Banks has been one of Netflix’s most-watched original streaming series as the show. Set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the saga follows two group of teens embarking on a treasure hunt for gold.

Chase Stokes plays John B. Routledge in Netflix drama 'Outer Banks' and says the cast is ready for the show to be done (Getty Images for Netflix)

Stokes and Madelyn Cline have starred in the series since its release in 2019 (© 2024 Netflix, Inc.)

Stokes stars in the teen drama alongside actors Drew Starkey, Madelyn Cline, Madison Bailey, Jonathan Daviss, Rudy Pankow, Carlacia Grant, and Austin North. The show, created by Josh Pate, Jonas Pate, and Shannon Burke, quickly skyrocketed to popularity in part due to its release a month after lockdown began during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Uglies star told People, “There’s just so much gratitude because I was a kid who had a dream and no access to an industry, never really even knew what the process was. I’ve checked so many boxes that I thought it would span the course of the next 40 years of my career.”

Starkey, 32, similarly said last year that the show coming out during the pandemic helped him ease into life in the spotlight.

“I think it was a good thing,” the Queer star told The Independent’s Adam White in December 2024. “It happens a lot, especially with younger actors, where you get on a project and all of a sudden you’re thrown into the world. So weirdly Covid helped ease me into attention a lot softer than it could have been otherwise. We had this safety cushion.”