"Longmire" successfully launched its fourth season on Netflix following its three-season run on A&E and was recently renewed for a fifth season. According to an interview with "Longmire" actor Lou Diamond Phillips on Variety, the new season will be slightly longer in order to share some of the spotlight on the other characters.
Much of season 4 focused on the main character Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) and his personal struggles; however, this also meant that several scenes that would expound upon some of the supporting characters had to be dropped due to the limited run time and to maintain proper story pacing.
This was further elaborated on by Phillips as he confirmed season 5 will be longer, with each episode now hitting the one-hour mark.
"We were previously constrained to 42 minutes and as a result, a lot of my work hit the floor," the actor stated. "With an additional 20 minutes, we can let those moments breathe and round out those characters and it's a much more cinematic experience episode to episode."
By extending each episode to an hour, the fifth season will be roughly over three hours longer than season 4. This will give it far more breathing room to inject scenes developing other characters and exploring their individual storylines without sacrificing the time needed to focus on Walt's story.
It was also stated in a report from Yibada that the fifth season will be even darker than past seasons in regard to its tone and themes. Given that "Longmire" is now on Netflix and no longer has to deal with network television restrictions, this is a very likely move.
Many Netflix shows such as "Daredevil" and "House of Cards" do not stray too far from heavy story lines, sex and violence and it is very likely "Longmire" will follow suit, allowing the show to tell its tale with nothing held back.
"Longmire" season 5 will premiere in 2016.
