‘Nashville’ Season 5 Spoilers: Meet The New Characters On The CMT Drama

“Nashville” Season 5 has a new network (CMT), new showrunners (Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz) and new characters. Of course, Rayna, Deacon and the other beloved country singers will be back, but the new faces that will really be memorable too. These are the characters Nashies will meet in the 2017 episodes:

Allyson Del Lago (Jen Richards) — The actress, who is most recognizable from her time on “I Am Cait,” appeared briefly in CMT’s sneak peek of the “Nashville” Season 5 premiere as Juliette’s (Hayden Panettiere) physical therapist. Expect the tough lady to play an important part in Juliette’s recovery.

Hallie Jordan (Rhiannon Giddens) — This character also appeared in the sneak peek as Juliette’s “angel.” As previously reported, the Grammy-nominated singer plays a social worker with an angelic voice.

Zach Welles (Cameron Scoggins) — The first hour of the “Nashville” Season 5 premiere introduced the tech billionaire who loves country music. However, he might love Rayna a little too much. TV Guide reports that he is obsessed with her.

Clay (Joseph David-Jones) — Clay is an up-and-coming singer who deals with intense mood swings. It looks like Maddie (Lennon Stella) will get a firsthand look at his emotional rollercoaster. They seem to be kissing in the Season 5 trailer.

Damien George (Christian Coulson) — The “Harry Potter” alum will play a director, and he’ll helm Scarlett (Clare Bowen) and Gunnar’s (Sam Palladio) first music video. Considering how much financial trouble Highway 65 Records is in, he better be worth the money. Deadline reports that he’ll push his actors to their limits.

Ashley Wilkenson (Bridgit Mendler) — CMT reports that the “Undateable” alum is playing a YouTube sensation who is about to make it big. She’s tough, but she can be vulnerable when she is willing to let her walls down.

Jakob Fine (Murray Bartlett) — The “Looking” actor will play a fashion designer in “Nashville” Season 5, according to TVLine. Judging from the trailer above, he might create a love triangle for Will (Chris Carmack) and Kevin (Kyle Dean Massey).

Though “Nashville” will be introducing many new characters, don’t expect them to each have individual storylines. It sounds like they’ll mostly be supporting players. The executive producers have said that they want to have fewer storylines this year.

“The only way we could do the show we wanted was to say we’re not going to serve every story or character in every episode,” Herskovitz told Entertainment Weekly last month. “That buys us the time to go deeper with each character when we do serve their story.”

“Nashville” Season 5 officially premieres Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017 on CMT.