A writers’ room for a potential fifth season of Tulsa King has opened and producers are planning a production move from Atlanta to New York, the first concrete planning step taken after Season 4 wrapped.
The move under discussion matters: roughly 250 people work on the show’s crew in Atlanta, and shifting a series’ base affects payroll, local hires and the on-screen geography of a show that has mostly filmed in Atlanta since its debut.
Those staffing numbers and the recent Season 4 wrap provide the immediate weight to the story. Production planning is already under way even though an official Season 5 pickup has not been announced. That gap — an active writers’ room paired with no network green light — is the clearest friction point around this development.
New York is not an incidental choice. Over the last three years the state has increased its film tax incentive program, expanding an annual pool that now totals $800 million and offering a 30% rebate that can rise to 40% for companies that commit at least $100 million. Those incentives match or improve on what Georgia offers and are cited as part of why producers are considering a relocation.
The relocation plan is also being driven by story. Creators and writers are reportedly eyeing narrative reasons to shift scenes to New York — a change that would be easier to stage if the series’ production base is there. Dwight "The General" Manfredi’s backstory as a New Yorker exiled to Tulsa gives writers a ready throughline if they decide to reconnect him to his old life on-screen.
Behind the scenes has not always been smooth. Going into Season 4 the production fired over two dozen crew members, and the show has navigated management instability; Terence Winter served as head writer and executive producer for Season 4 while Scott Stone has operated as the de facto showrunner in the absence of a formally named replacement. Those personnel disruptions make a production move and a refreshed writers’ room both a logistical and creative gamble.
For Atlanta crews the practical stakes are immediate. About 250 crew members work on Tulsa King in that market; a relocation would shrink local work on the series and force many crew to choose between relocation, freelance work elsewhere or leaving the production entirely. For the series budget, a successful tax-credit strategy in New York could alter shooting schedules, above- and below-the-line costs, and where money is spent on sets, locations and local vendors.
The friction — and the clearest unanswered question — is institutional: a Season 5 pickup has not been made official. Opening a writers’ room and mapping a production move ahead of a formal renewal is common enough in television when studios want to move quickly after a pickup, but it leaves cast, crew and local economies in limbo until the streamer signs off.
What happens next is straightforward and decisive. Paramount+ must formally approve Season 5 before the plans can proceed. If the streamer greenlights a new season, the writers’ room that has already convened will have had a head start on reshaping stories to take advantage of New York locations and tax incentives; if Paramount+ declines or delays, the writers’ room and the relocation planning will be shelved and Atlanta’s roughly 250 crew members will be left waiting for alternative work.
The opening of the writers’ room and the detailed conversation about New York make a move credible, not certain. The next step that will make it real is an official pickup from Paramount+ — without that signature, the plans remain contingency, and the practical consequences for cast, crew and the series’ direction stay unresolved.
