Diana Staehly, as Chief Inspector Anna Maiwald, will lead the SOKO Cologne team from now on with a steady hand and in a humorously confident manner. She loves opera and appreciates peppermint pastilles of the brand extrascharf. She will be assisted by the young inspector Lilly Funke, played by Tatjana Kästel. She immediately wins over the team with her brash, spontaneous manner, until she wakes up in the morning in a hotel next to her dead lover and is herself suspected of murder. Of course, the team continues to include commissioners Matti Wagner (Pierre Besson), Jonas Fischer (Lukas Piloty), Vanessa Haas (Kerstin Landsmann) and forensic pathologist Dr. Philip Kraft (Thomas Clemens).
In the 15th season, too, there are plenty of exciting cases to solve in every conceivable milieu. Among the murder suspects are supposedly honorable lawyers, mini-golfers and pop singers. The team solves even the most complicated cases with finesse and a precise eye for the supposedly insignificant detail. But despite all the criminalistic flair, there is also plenty of humor and fun to be had together.
For the start of the new season, Torsten Wacker takes over the direction. In the first episode roles will Jeanette Hain, Wilson Gonzalez Ochsenknecht, Harald Schrott, Suzan Anbeh, Hilmi Sözer, Axel Pape, Daniel Wiemer, Johanna Gastdorf, Nele Mueller-Stöfen, Alexander Beyer, Matthias Bundschuh, Julia Bremermann, Markus Knüfken, Ben Münchow, Tobias Schenke, Peter Prager, Eric Klotzsch, Marc Oliver Schulze, Mariele Millowitsch, Karim Günes, Katharina Schlothauer, Tanja Wedhorn, Gustav Peter Wöhler and other actors.
The producers are Jan Knauer and Andrea Rullmann. SOKO Köln is produced by Network Movie Köln, with Wolfgang Cimera as producer. Wolfgang Witt and Peter Jännert are the ZDF editors.