TF1 broadcasts the fifth and final season of “Balthazar” every Thursday. And if the series ends according to the will of Tomer Sisley, it was for a time considered to continue the adventure without him. And comedians have even auditioned to replace him.
After five seasons and 38 episodes, Balthazar, TF1’s hit detective series, will end on February 23 with a final episode entitled “Game Over”, which promises to bring the adventures of the medical examiner played by Tomer Sisley and Camille to a climax. Costes (Constance Labbe). With a final face to face between Raphaël Balthazar and Alexandre, his evil brother.
If this juggernaut of ratings, which again brought together more than 6 million viewers last month with the first episode of its final season, stops, it is quite simply because Tomer Sisley has decided that the time has come to him to devote himself to other projects.
“Shooting Balthazar was particularly time-consuming”recently told us the actor who also distinguished himself in Vortex at the start of the year. “Because I wasn’t just doing my acting work on the series. Besides, the producer, to thank me, quotes me in the credits as an artistic collaborator. And it’s not for nothing, it takes me a lot time. Now, I don’t have more time than anyone else (laughs)”.
“There are other things I want to do in my career behind. I am in full preparation for Largo Winch 3 for the cinema. I just finished the post-production of a TV movie that I produced, Like my son. I loved doing that, and all of that wouldn’t have been possible by continuing to shoot Balthazar, which took me at least six months a year.”.
A season 6 without Tomer Sisley has been considered
The production, TF1 and the authors therefore heard Tomer Sisley’s wish to stop Balthazar and offered a real end to the series. But, what fans don’t know is that it was considered, at some point, that a season 6 would see the light of day. With another actor in the role of Raphaël Balthazar!
“They tried to replace me (laughs)”revealed to us, amused, Tomer Sisley as part of the promotion for this fifth and final season. “I have a lot of actor friends of my generation who have called me to say, ‘Tomer, you’ll never guess what they just called me for!’ And, indeed, I have several friends who have spent tries to play Balthazar. It’s funny. You’ll have to ask the production and the channel why it didn’t happen in the end.”.
Thibault Grabherr / TF1
So, obviously, we decided to ask the question to the main interested party, Clothilde Jamin, who created Balthazar and holds the position of producer and showrunner on the series.
“In fact, we are considering everything. So when we learn that Tomer is leaving, we necessarily think about a lot of things in our heads, including finding another actor to play Balthazar”she replied bluntly.
“We love this series. And the series is obviously the character of Balthazar, so Tomer. But it’s also a concept, a universe, that of forensic medicine. A tone too, quite particular. Polar intrigues, which are quite specific to the series. So, yes, we say to ourselves “There are other options”. And we studied others, because it was not easy to let go of this series that we love so much “.
And if Clothilde Jamin remains rather vague on the reasons which made TF1 and the production finally give up pursuing the Balthazar adventure with another actor, like Sam who will soon see Hélène de Fougerolles succeed Natacha Lindinger, she admits all the same: “It’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role of Balthazar”.
An observation on which the many viewers of the series will certainly also agree. Because after five seasons of investigations and intrigues crazier than the others, it is clear that Tomer Sisley is Balthazar. And that it would have been very difficult – if not impossible – to replace him.