It’s official, Big Little Lies is returning for a third season.
Deadline was first to report the highly anticipated news on Thursday, September 11, revealing that executive producer and showrunner Francesca Sloane is set to write the first episode of David. E. Kelley’s fan-favorite series.
The show, which originally aired in 2017, is based on Liane Moriarty’s book of the same name. The Australian author is gearing up to release a sequel, which is projected for release next year. Moriarty, 58, has confirmed that the second book will feature a time jump with the main characters, who are now the moms of teenagers.
Chairman and CEO of HBO Casey Bloys told Deadline last year that the network was waiting for Moriarty’s sequel before moving forward with a third season.
“They’re all excited. We’re excited,” he said in November 2024. “We’re all waiting for the book, which I believe is coming soon, but I do not have a copy in my hands.”
‘Big Little Lies’ Creator Says He’s ‘Hopeful’ for Season 3
Big Little Lies stars Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Zoë Kravitz, Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern.
Kidman, 58, was first to confirm that there was a third season in the works during an October 2023 appearance.
“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,” she revealed while talking about the show. “And we will be bringing you a third one, just FYI.”
Many of the women have expressed their excitement about returning over the years.
“I’m gonna be shy about it,” Dern told Entertainment Tonight in October 2022. “I mean, we would all love nothing more, we’re just like family — just very lucky. I say, let’s hold out hope. Let’s keep asking, it might just come true.”
More recently, show creator Kelley told People that “everyone is very committed” to bringing the show back.
Reese Witherspoon Scolds Nicole Kidman for ‘Big Little Lies’ Season 3 Hints
“We’re hoping it happens,” he said in June. “We had a great time doing the first two seasons and we all want to do it again. I’m hopeful it’ll happen.”
Witherspoon previously explained that doing another season without director Jean-Marc Vallée, who died in 2021, would make things tough.
“He was our collaborator. He was our friend. He was our brother,” she said during an October 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “So much of that series was born of his imagination and his creativity, so it is hard to imagine a future without him. But there is certainly a deep desire for all of us to connect and create those characters again.”
