Will Big Little Lies Get A Third Season?
Season 2 of "Big Little Lies" (in 2019) ended with an explosive reveal, one that undoubtedly helped result in the highest viewership the series had seen. The Monterey Five, made up of Reese Witherspoon's Madeline Mackenzie, Nicole Kidman's Celeste Wright, Shailene Woodley's Jane Chapman, Laura Dern's Renata Klein, and Zoë Kravitz's Bonnie Carlson, ostensibly put their titular lie to bed. In the finale, after suffering through a season of guilt and repressed rage stemming from their involvement in and subsequent cover-up of Perry Wright's (Alexander Skarsgård) death, all five women walk together to the Monterey police station, presumptively going inside to confess.
The series ends there, though for sticklers it concluded a season before when the show wrapped the story contained in source author Liane Moriarty's original novel. The cover-up, Meryl Streep's ferocious mother-in-law Mary Louise — all of that was fiction stemming from fiction. The monumental popularity mandated a second season, whether or not there was a story left to tell. And that's par for the course with HBO, whose cult hit "The Leftovers" ran for two additional seasons beyond the source material. While that means there is a chance "Big Little Lies" could return for an explosive third season, the 2021 death of season one director and executive producer Jean-Marc Vallée suggests otherwise. Here is everything we know about whether "Big Little Lies" will return for another season of lying (and Emmys).
Why Big Little Lies season 3 hasn't happened
While fans of the show have no doubt been clamoring for more —and who could blame them given the show's cliffhanger finale — professional constraints have kept, and likely will keep, the cast from getting back together again. In a 2019 interview with TVLine, HBO president Casey Bloys remarked, "I love this group of people ... I would do anything with them ... But the reality is, they are some of the busiest actresses working in Hollywood." Nicole Kidman returned to the network in 2020 with "The Undoing," an underrated crime drama, while co-star Laura Dern won her first Oscar for her work in Noah Baumbach's "Marriage Story." Zoë Kravitz made a splash in "The Batman," while season two lynchpin Meryl Streep is currently playing a recurring role on Hulu's "Only Murders in the Building." Getting one of the industry's most in-demand performers is hard enough; wrangling six of them seems near impossible.
Additionally, and more tragically, original director Jean-Marc Vallée's passing in late 2021 has all but ensured the series won't return. While Andrea Arnold took over the helm for Season 2, the production was troubled, tying Arnold's hands late in the game to ensure visual and thematic consistency with Vallée's body of work. In a TikTok shared by GQ, Kravitz remarked that while Season 3 remained an ongoing discussion, she cannot imagine proceeding following the death of "incredible director" Vallée. Circumstances and tragedy coincided, and resultantly, it appears the series is done for good.
Everything the cast has said about season 3
For all the apparent certainty, nothing is ever really definite in Hollywood. In the years following the second season, some of the cast and crew have remained open to the possibility of returning. Kravitz's above remarks are the most recent, though, in earlier interviews, the Monterey Five especially have teased a possible return. In a 2020 Variety interview with Regina King and Reese Witherspoon, Witherspoon, when asked whether the series might return, said, "I never say never, because we thought 'Big Little Lies' was going to be one season, and we had no idea we were going to go back." In a 2019 Elle profile, Nicole Kidman made it abundantly clear she recognizes the fan demand for another season. She similarly noted in an interview with Deadline — when discussing her role in another Moriarty project, "Nine Perfect Strangers" — that if another season happens, it'll start with the series' writers.
Laura Dern would love to play fan favorite Renata Klein again (and who could blame her?), though in an Entertainment Tonight interview with Kidman, the star remarked, "I don't think we'd ever get Laura [Dern] back!" With a bit more finality, series showrunner David E. Kelley remarked to Harper's Bazaar that there are no current plans for a Season 3. While most of the cast remains somewhat optimistic, it seems unlikely that HBO will dredge the series back up, especially at this stage.
In November of 2023, Nicole Kidman made the most decisive affirmation of a potential third season when, during a Q&A at the CME Group Tour Championship, she said:
"I loved 'Big Little Lies' because it sort of came along at a time in my life when I had my children, and I was thinking I was going to retire, and then this situation came along where Reese Witherspoon and I were able to produce that show, and create that show. And then all of you watched it and made it a massive success. And we will be bringing you a third one, just FYI."
That sounds like a promise!
What could happen in season 3?
If a third season were to happen, it would no doubt originate with source author Liane Moriarty. Echoing the sentiments shared by Nicole Kidman in her Deadline interview, showrunner David E. Kelly noted that it was Moriarty's material that convinced him to give the second season a go. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, touching on the motivation for season two, he credited, "A multitude of forces," adding, "but mainly it came down to a creative analysis. Liane wrote a novella of stories, and most of them we're using."
Of course, any third season would follow through on the series finale's surprise ending. The Monterey Five, wracked with guilt, decided to turn themselves in to the police. Truthfully, it was a decision they should have made from the start. Season 2 principally lags on account of the incredulity of it all. No one can explain why they lied in the first place, especially since Perry's death was unequivocally justified. With Kravitz's Bonnie being both the one to push Perry and subsequently the first one to suggest confessing, there is room to better explore her story. As the only black woman among the five — and among only a few black women in the show's depiction of Monterey — there is a wealth of thematic material for a potential third season to explore.
Who will the stars of season 3 be?
The entire core cast of "Big Little Lies" would need to return should the show come back. While most modern television is predicated around an ensemble cast, few have said cast as inextricably linked to its main conceit as "Big Little Lies." All five of these women play a role not only in the lie itself but in the circumstances before and after it. Removing even one person from the equation would dismantle what made "Big Little Lies" such a remarkable phenomenon in the first place. Laura Dern has maintained an interest in playing Renata Klein again, and in a 2020 Marie Claire interview, Nicole Kidman revealed that the cast remains close, remarking, "Reese and I talk or text once a week... We all just want to work together again. I texted Zoë and Laura and they're in. David and Liane have a really good idea for it. Watch this space!"
While that space would be derailed by the unfortunate death of Jean-Marc Vallée, it is reasonable to contend that, were another season to fall into place, the entire cast would be on board (schedules permitting, of course). Stranger things have certainly happened, though "Big Little Lies" faces a bigger hurdle than most. Who knows? Maybe years from now, "Big Little Lies" will go the legacy television route (see: "Murphy Brown," "Mad About You") and bring these characters back again. For sure, they'd still be lying.
Season 3 would happen without Jean-Marc Vallée
Fandom is not ownership, and in this space, it's worth honoring the legacy of Jean-Marc Vallée. Beyond "Big Little Lies," Vallée helmed one of the most frightening and subversive crime thrillers around with "Sharp Objects," adapted from the Gillian Flynn novel of the same name. "Wild," "The Dallas Buyers Club," and "The Young Victoria" all enjoyed strong showings at the Academy Awards. HBO has been trying to replicate Vallée's inimitable style for years, with limited success. What he left behind, his body of work, is a marvelous legacy.
For "Big Little Lies" to continue, it would do so without Vallée's involvement. To repeat Zoë Kravitz's sentiments, there is no "Big Little Lies" without Vallée. It's as much his show as it is the cast's. Subtract a keystone creative force, and the entire enterprise risks falling apart. While the Season 2 ending might have frustrated some fans, it was truthfully the only way the show could have ended. "Big Little Lies" was about accountability as much as it was deceit, and in its final moments, accountability was within reach. There always exists a chance it will return — where there's money to be made, there's a way — though for now, it's likely best to let the show bow out the way it, and Vallée, always intended.