Russian comedy series Zhuki will return for its fifth season, titled Zhuki. Winter, on the TNT network and Premier streaming platform in late 2026.
The upcoming run relocates the popular adventure comedy into the harsh rural cold as the colourful residents and visitors of the fictional village of Zhuki prepare for New Year festivities.
Producers have promised to showcase central hallmarks of the traditional Russian winter, ranging from towering snowdrifts to ceremonial bathing in carved ice holes.
Broadcast schedule and episode reduction
The fifth season is scheduled to premiere toward the end of 2026, though broadcasters have not yet announced a precise calendar date for the rollout.
Industry rumours suggest that the episodes will debut in mid-December, though neither television network TNT nor the streaming service Premier has officially confirmed that timing. The winter season will comprise 10 half-hour episodes, running six episodes shorter than each of the previous three 16-episode seasons.
The series originally aired for three seasons under the single title Zhuki, before rebranding as New Zhuki for its fourth run and adopting the subtitle Zhuki. Winter for season five.
Promotional activities began on October 23, 2026, when lead cast members and director Maksim Peshkov published the first official teaser trailer, which accumulated more than one million views within a week.
Origins of the village comedy
The comedy franchise debuted in the autumn of 2019, following three young software specialists from Moscow: application creator Nikita Davydov, programmer Denis Popov, nicknamed Dan, and graphic designer Artemy Shneider, portrayed by Vyacheslav Chepurchenko, Pavel Komarov, and Vadim Dubrovnin.
The trio had developed a mobile dating application named TWIN, but when their prospective funding deal collapsed, all three received military draft notices. To continue working on the software, the resourceful developers registered for alternative civilian service, which assigned them to Zhuki, an isolated rural settlement lacking internet access and modern metropolitan amenities.
While attempting to complete coding on TWIN in secret, the urban arrivals struggled to navigate rural customs and clashed with local authority figure Sergei Maslov, the village precinct police officer played by Maksim Lagashkin.
All three specialists eventually established local romantic relationships. Nikita partnered with Maslov's daughter Katya, played by Darya Alypova, while Dan married village milkmaid Dina, played by Elizaveta Goncharenko.
Artemy became involved in an intricate romantic triangle with village shop assistant Irina Gerasimova, played by Ekaterina Stulova, and her former husband Anatoly, known as Tolik, played by Vladimir Epifantsev, who had recently finished a prison sentence. When their alternative service term ended and TWIN achieved commercial success, Dan and Artemy declined to return to Moscow, choosing instead to settle permanently in the village.
Fourth season resolution and winter storyline
The fourth season concluded in late 2024 with the villagers defending their homes against Valentin Mikhailovich Yudin, the governor of Saratov Oblast played by Artem Volobuev, who attempted to bulldoze Zhuki to construct a state-sponsored Silicon Valley alternative called New Zhuki.
The plot resolved when Nikita and Katya celebrated the birth of their son, while Artemy and Irina reunited once again to raise their children alongside Artemy's mother, Bella Aleksandrovna, played by Yulia Yablonskaya, and Tolik. Dan's wife Dina also became pregnant after long attempts.
Maslov avoided impending criminal imprisonment after a passing stork dropped a stray brick directly onto Governor Yudin's head. Convinced that the village was cursed, the terrified politician abandoned the New Zhuki project and revoked all official charges against the police officer. A closing epilogue jumped ten years into the future, showing the core characters and their growing children flourishing in the countryside.
The fifth season opens in the present day as the settlement prepares for Maslov's 50th birthday jubilee alongside winter celebrations. Nikita arrives from Moscow accompanying three foreign investors who requested an authentic taste of a Russian winter. The visitors, comprising an American woman, a French man, and a Chinese man, encounter immediate trouble upon arrival.
Production history and Kaluga filming
The series is produced by Norm Production, the production company behind several popular TNT television comedies, including The Bodyguards, Girls with Makarov, and SashaTanya.
Director and screenwriter Maksim Peshkov returned to manage the fifth season, having directed the comedy since its third season following work by earlier directors Konstantin Smirnov and Konstantin Kolesov. Around the time of the third season, Peshkov also directed Maksim Lagashkin in the comedy series Non-Private Life. In 2026, Peshkov has two additional releases scheduled, the fairy tale feature Umka and the full-length movie Zhuki. New Life.
Peshkov co-authored the winter screenplay with Sergei Notarius, a comedy writer known for his contributions to the television series Interns and the feature film End of Fame.
Production on the fifth chapter officially commenced in December 2025, one year after the fourth season ended. Cast and crew returned to their primary shooting location in the village of Nizhnie Podgorichi, located in the Kaluga Oblast.
Peshkov documented the production across his personal social media channels under the heading Zhuki. Winter. Behind the Scenes, uploading imagery from each of the 48 working shifts before principal photography concluded in March 2026.
Returning cast and character updates
The winter continuation features the return of the central ensemble, including Igor Vernik as former application investor Vladimir Marchenko, Viktor Bychkov as local Orthodox priest Father Aleksandr, and Anatoly Zhuravlev as village veterinarian Aleksei Ivanovich Samoylov, known to residents as Ivanych.
Karina Mishulina returns as Maslov's wife Galina, while Maryana Spivak reprises her role as precinct officer Antonina Shchukina, who arrived in season three and became Marchenko's romantic partner. Mikhail Parygin and Anastasia Lapina also return as Dina's parents, Oleg Aleksandrovich and Tamara Petrovna.
Three new international performers join the regular cast for the winter storyline. Actress Polina Ryaysanen, known for Two Hills 3, appears as the American visitor Jessica, while Dong Yuqi, known from House with Cops, portrays the Chinese investor Fu Chao. Broadcasters have not yet officially revealed the identity of the actor cast as the French investor Antoine.
Vladimir Epifantsev, who portrayed Irina's former husband Anatoly Gerasimov, was the only prominent cast member from previous seasons absent from the preview trailer and official promotional rosters. The actor made no mention of filming on his social platforms, and production executives have provided no public comment regarding the character's absence.
Across four seasons and 65 broadcast episodes, the series has accumulated critical ratings of 7.9 out of 10 on the Russian platform Kinopoisk and 7.3 out of 10 on IMDb.
