As HBO’s nail-biting financial thriller Industry preps for its fifth and final season, the cast is eager to push the envelope as far as they possibly can.

“All I’ll say is this show has pushed it and pushed it and pushed it each season, and I just know for certain that we’ll push it again,” said star Kit Harrington Sunday during Deadline’s Contenders TV panel for the series.” And for that reason, it will be really exciting. Really, really exciting.”

In Season 4 of Industry, which wrapped March 1, at the top of their game and living the lives they set out to have as Pierpoint grads, Harper (Myha’la) and Yasmin (Marisa Abela) are drawn into a high stakes, globetrotting cat-and-mouse game when a splashy fintech darling bursts onto the London scene. As Yasmin navigates her relationship with tech founder Sir Henry Muck (Harington) and Harper is pulled into the orbit of enigmatic executive Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella), their twisted friendship begins to warp and ignite under the pressure of money, power, and the desire to be on top. 

“I think that we all really try and gnaw on the bone of this show,” agreed Marisa Abela. “And I think that that’s what people responded to…and I think the show has gotten better and better. But I think since Season 1, what’s made it special is that we attack it. We just go pretty hard on it. In terms of Yasmine, who knows? I hope I’m not doing some horrible things, but I hope it has people standing on the sofas on a Sunday night at the end being like, ‘What the hell?!’ That’s what I really hope.”

Industry is created, written, and executive produced by Mickey Down & Konrad Kay. 

“We’re quite lucky to know that coming into this season, it is our last one,” added Myha’la. “I feel like that’s a privilege and a gift that not everyone has. My hopes and dreams are just to go into it and tear it to shreds. I want to go so hard there’s nothing left of me – I’m so serious! This is true for me. I’m sure it’s true for all of us, and [showrunners] Mickey [Down] and Konrad [Kay] as well. This has been a gift.”

The cast also includes Ken Leung, Miriam Petche, Sagar Radia, Toheeb Jimoh, Charlie Heaton, Amy James-Kelly, Roger Barclay, Andrew Havill, Kiernan Shipka, Kal Penn, Jack Farthing, Stephen Campbell Moore, Claire Forlani, and Edward Holcroft. 

“It is so rare to get characters and to have a world laid out for you where you get to be flawed and complicated, where you get to change, evolve,” Myha’la added. “And to paint a picture that invites the audience to allow themselves to be flawed as well.

“This is like the definition of representation,” the actress continued. “I’m not interested in seeing a perfect picture of what we idolize ourselves, whatever. Mickey and Konrad have created something in which we’re like, ‘Here is a piece of the world dramatized for you. Now you get to have all this discourse and conversations and what does it mean? And do we hate them? Do we love them?’ They’re human beings. They’re real people. So I want to go into this last one, making sure I leave everything on the floor and giving Harper her justice because she deserves it. This show deserves it. And we’re lucky that we get to do it one more time and know that that’s it.”

Industry is a Bad Wolf Production for HBO/BBC and is executive produced by Jane Tranter, Kate Crowther, and Ryan Rasmussen for Bad Wolf; Kathleen McCaffrey for Little Gems; and Rebecca Ferguson for BBC. Directors include Mickey Down & Konrad Kay, Michelle Savill, and Luke Snellin. Writers include Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, and Joseph Charlton. 

Check back Monday for the panel video.