Hey, remember Netflix’s Last Chance U? The fifth season of the series, which was embedded with Oakland’s Laney College last fall, will premiere on July 28th.
On Twitter, Last Chance U notes this will be the final season focusing on football, with next season’s focus switching to basketball.
Here’s the trailer.
On July 28, meet the players and coaches of Laney College.
While it's the last football season, a new chapter begins with Last Chance U: Basketball, coming 2021. pic.twitter.com/epghuOSqqF— Last Chance U: Basketball (@LastChanceU) June 23, 2020
Laney themselves also tweeted a brief press release talking about the season, referencing the “countless setbacks” the team had to deal with in 2019.
Press release regarding the world premiere of @LastChanceU Season 5 on Netflix: pic.twitter.com/L6073fpUtC
— Laney College Football (@LaneyCollegeFB) June 23, 2020
The first basketball season, premiering sometime in 2021, will focus on the East Los Angeles College team from the 2019-20 season. Given a potential host of restrictions that will likely come with filming amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, filming two seasons over the last year may prove to be a wise decision in hindsight.
Moving away from football probably was a wise move. The first two seasons at East Mississippi Community College set a standard that the next two seasons, set at Independence Community College in Kansas, couldn’t live up to. The fourth season of Last Chance U was released in the wake of controversy, as former Independence head coach Jason Brown resigned after telling a player “I am your new Hitler” in a text message exchange. Weeks before the season’s premiere, Brown was charged with eight felonies for trying to silence newspapers. The last update I can find on that situation is that back in January, the state was granted a continuance, with the next hearing set for April 24th. I’d assume that was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but further information is scarce.