'Big Little Lies' Season 3: What we know
It's the truth: "Big Little Lies" is plotting another return.
A third season of the Emmy-winning HBO drama series is moving full steam ahead, according to stars Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman.
The first season, which debuted in 2017, centered on a mysterious murder and the group of women involved in the investigation. Witherspoon, Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz and Laura Dern starred. Though it was initially billed as a one-season story and even won the Emmy for best limited series, the show returned in 2019 for a second season depicting the aftermath of the murder. For Season 2, Meryl Streep was added to the cast.
HBO has yet to formally announce a third season of "Big Little Lies," but here's what we can glean about the show's future based on interviews with the cast.
Who will be in 'Big Little Lies' Season 3?
It sounds like most, if not all, of the women who led the first two seasons would return.
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Witherspoon is certainly on board, as the "Legally Blonde" star confirmed to Variety in January that "we are working on" a third season. In November, Kidman mentioned a third season was happening during a Q&A and later told Variety she and Witherspoon are "texting every day" about it. "There's a timeline and we're doing it," she added. Kidman and Witherspoon are both producers on the show.
During a Vanity Fair conversation in June, Kidman confirmed Season 3 is moving "fast and furious." Witherspoon, meanwhile, said Dern, Kravitz and Woodley had all called her after seeing these earlier comments.
In previous interviews, Dern and Woodley both said they hope a third season happens.
"We love each other so much and would have the time of our life being back together, and we love our characters so much," Dern told Entertainment Weekly.
Kathryn Newton also told The Hollywood Reporter she would return as the daughter of Witherspoon's character. "I would definitely go back," she said. "To work with those women again? Yes. I would jump, too."
For her part, though, Kravitz told GQ in 2022 she didn't think a third season would happen after the death of Jean-Marc Vallée, who directed the entire first season. "I just can't imagine going on without him," she said.
What's the plot of 'Big Little Lies' Season 3?
In an interview with Elle, Kidman said her daughter partially inspired the third season after watching the first two and feeling there was more to explore with her mom's character, Celeste.
"My daughter is the one who watched both of the series and went, 'OK, there's just no question, there has to be a third,'" she said. "She's like, 'Celeste, she's not coping in the second one, what is she doing?'"
Kidman also said Season 3 would explore a new chapter of the characters' lives as their children grow up.
"There's the richness of the storylines, which we’d always discussed, but it needed time because there's actual unbelievable depth to the next chapter of these women's lives and their children's lives — because children grow up, and that's kind of fascinating," she told Elle.
Similarly, Woodley told Harper's Bazaar that "what excites me about the possibility of a third season" is the fact that the kids on the show are now older, asking, "What does life look like for those people who are not children anymore?"
In her Vanity Fair conversation with Witherspoon, Kidman also teased that "Liane is delivering the book." Liane Moriarty wrote the novel that "Big Little Lies" was based on, so Kidman appeared to be implying the author is writing additional material for the show to use in Season 3.
When will 'Big Little Lies' Season 3 air?
No release window for Season 3 has been announced, and it's likely still several years away. In January, HBO and Max Content CEO Casey Bloys told Variety the season is in the "very early stages" of development.
"Where you have all these stars, you've got to get their schedules in line, we have to get it written," he said. "So, there's a lot that needs to be done."