Pop the champagne! We finally have a definitive answer to the question of whether HBO will ever get around to making a third season of Big Little Lies. After lots of time and speculation, the answer appears to be: probably!
Allow us to explain. Season 1 of Big Little Lies was adapted by show creator David E. Kelley from the eponymous novel by Liane Moriarty. Many people were skeptical about whether the show should continue after exhausting the source material, but season 2 proved to be a fun watch, especially with the addition of Meryl Streep as Celeste’s (Nicole Kidman) infuriating mother-in-law. It has now been four long years since season 2 ended in July 2019, and to be honest, viewers have started to lose hope.
Don’t despair: Season 3 is in the works
In August 2023, Big Little Lies executive producer Bruna Papandrea told Deadline, “I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. I do believe a lot of people feel the way I do, which is to find a way at some point to continue.”
Kidman, who also serves as executive producer, has been vocal about her hopes for a third season, but scheduling conflicts among the show’s many mega-stars are an issue. Now it finally seems they’re all coming together on the same page once more, because Deadline reports that Kidman mentioned Big Little Lies during a Q&A at the CME Group Tour Championship, giving fans their biggest boost of hope to date. “I loved Big Little Lies,” said Kidman. We will be bringing you a third one, just FYI.”
Most recently, producer and star Reese Witherspoon confirmed the third season during an interview with Variety on the red carpet of the 81st Golden Globe Awards. “We are working on it,” she told reporters. “[Nicole Kidman] and I have been working on it a lot.”
What will season 3 be about?
Since Kelley is now writing sans outline, your guess is as good as ours! However, knowing how things ended at the end of the second season gives us hints about where the show may go:
Celeste spent much of the second season duking it out with her awful mother-in-law, Mary Jane (Streep). The season ended with a court battle royale in which Celeste convinced a judge that Mary Jane is actually abusive, just like her late son, Perry (Alexander Skarsgard). Celeste won full custody of her children, yay!
Madeline (Witherspoon) and Ed (Adam Scott) renewed their vows, Jane (Shailene Woodley) overcame her issues and grew intimate with Corey (Douglas Smith), Renata (Laura Dern) went off on her man-child husband’s toy trains, and Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz) repaired the fractured relationship with her mother just before the older woman’s death and broke up with her husband Nathan (James Tupper).
At the end of the episode, the Monterey Five roll up to the police station prepared to finally confess to their parts in Perry’s death at the end of season 1. What will happen next? Stay tuned to find out.
When and where will season 3 air?
There’s no release date for the next installment of Big Little Lies. It appears that the show is still in very early production, which is why Kidman and Witherspoon, as producers, are working on it. We doubt they’ll pull it all together for a summer release date, so we could be looking at spring 2025 before new episodes land on HBO.
In the meantime, you can stream seasons 1 and 2 of the award-winning drama on Max.
(featured image: HBO)
