‘The Americans,’ Wigs and [SPOILER] Return With First Season 5 Photo

FX long-since eased the burden of Americans fans concerned with the show’s fate, giving us almost a full two seasons to wrap up the Jennings’ spy games. Now, sneak a peek at the fifth and penultimate year with some new wigs for Philip and Elizabeth, details on the “slow burn” season and and update on returning characters.

Entertainment Weekly debuted a first photo from The Americans Season 5 ahead of a spring premiere, spotlighting new disguises “Brad” and “Dee Eckbert,” who will be key to one of the season’s subplots.

Don’t expect the series to suddenly shift gears in a race to the finish line, however, as executive producers Joe Weisberg teased an even slower approach to Season 5:

We have a whole new tactic. People have called this show a “slow burn.” We used to think that was a back-handed compliment, or possibly even an insult. We’ve come to embrace the slow burn — such a slow burn that it may not even be burning at all. We’re just telling a story as it unfolds. For us, the penultimate season is just another season of telling a story of this family and the people around them. It’s not ramped up. It’s not hyped up. It’s not building the tension — but it will be a great season.

And of course … the burning question: Is Martha coming back? Well, from what we can tell, Alison Wright hasn’t been released from the cast …

Martha, still off the grid?

WEISBERG: She’s off the grid. But what’s your grid?

The grid is the cast of the show.

FIELDS: We did not say that.

Elsewhere of The Americans Season 5, we know that Noah Emmerich’s former Walking Dead co-star Laurie Holden has joined in a recurring role as Renee, a new love interest for Stan Beeman. Brett Tucker will also take the recurring role of Ben Stobert, described as “a charming, intelligent and passionate scientist, whose work goes deeper than it seems.”

The Americans Season 5 will premiere at an unspecified date in 2017, but will ever-bountiful wigs prove the undoing of Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, whether this season or next?

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