Sweet Tooth is a fine example of my very favorite genre: “Traumatized badass escorts special child through the apocalypse.” If you liked The Last of Us, you should be watching Sweet Tooth, a fairytale-like dystopian story based on the comic by Jeff Lemire. It’s on Netflix, executive produced by Susan and Robert Downey Jr., and there’s two seasons available to watch at the moment. But fans such as myself want to know: when exactly is season 3 coming?
How did Sweet Tooth season 2 end?
Look away now if you don’t want spoilers for the show so far!
We’ve got an adorable deer-hybrid main character, Gus (Christian Convery) and his protector, Tommy Jepperd, a.k.a. Big Man (Nonso Anozie). At the end of season 1 they were separated and Gus was imprisoned along with many other hybrid children.
Season 2 ended with Gus—with help from Jepperd and all his friends—escaping the compound where he and his fellow hybrids were being held. There were some deaths along the way, though. Mother figure Aimee (Dania Ramirez) contracted apocalyptic disease the Sick and died, but she passed away peacefully surrounded by the children she’d saved. And Johnny (Marlon Williams) was shot and killed by his own brother, the monstrous General Abbott (Neil Sandilands).
Meanwhile, Becky (Stefania LaVie Owen) revealed to little Wendy (Naledi Murray) that she was her long-lost sister. Warlord Zhang (Rosalind Chao) is planning something big involving a bunch of vicious, meat-devouring creatures she’s keeping in a cage. And Gus had a dream involving his missing mom Birdie (Amy Seimetz). The pieces are all in place for a tremendous final battle…
Is Sweet Tooth season 3 in the works?
In May 2023, Sweet Tooth was officially renewed for a third and final season of eight episodes. The cast of the show were all delighted.
Showrunner Jim Mickle shared his excitement with the Netflix website:
In a lot of ways, it’s exactly the story that I imagined we would tell and in a lot of ways it takes on its own life. At the beginning, I think you set out to tell these landmark pieces of Gus’ story and the big pieces of the comic book, but the beauty of long-form storytelling and Gus’ journey over 24 episodes is the characters themselves tell you what they want to be. The crew and cast bring so much depth and point of view to who the characters are and where they’ve come from and where they’re going.
And speaking of the cast—
Who is in the cast of Sweet Tooth season 3?
At the end of season 2, Gus, Jepperd, Becky and Wendy are all together, heading to Alaska to find Gus’s mother Birdie. So that should indicate all those characters will be returning for season 3. And we can probably assume that Dr. Aditya Singh (Adeel Akhtar), who’s played a huge role in the story so far, will also be back.
There are a couple of new faces in the season 3 cast list too. Cara Gee and Ayazhan Dalabayeva will be series regulars, with Gee playing a character called Siana and Dalabayeva one named Nuka.
What will be the plot of Sweet Tooth season 3?
Jim Mickle told Netflix after the renewal:
In Season 3, everybody is dealing with some kind of wound or emotional loss, whether that was somebody in their life or a part of themselves. Everybody is looking inward and looking to move on and ultimately learning that life doesn’t stop. You have to keep putting one foot in front of another.
It’s safe to assume a big part of the action will revolve around Birdie and the search for her, since actress Amy Seimetz has been upped to series regular. And so has Rosalind Chao, so expect more from Zhang and her mysterious animals.
What’s the release window for Sweet Tooth season 3?
When Netflix made the announcement about season 3, they revealed that the season had actually already been filmed in New Zealand. So we’re definitely looking at sooner rather than later for the show’s return.
Netflix did drop a lovely, Northern Lights-themed poster for season 3 and it says simply that it’s “coming soon.”
Perhaps we can anticipate a late 2023 or early 2024 release, then? Watch this space!
(featured image: Netflix)
