This July will mark five years since viewers last saw the Monterey Five on their screens in the Season 2 finale of Big Little Lies. Initially envisioned as a miniseries for HBO based on author Liane Moriarty‘s novel of the same name, the show was a breakout hit drama for the network that earned another season to continue the women’s stories. The possibility of a third season has been floated for a while now, with series star Nicole Kidman confirming last year that the powerhouse quintet would return in some form. Now, Season 3 has gotten perhaps its most positive update yet, with Kidman and Reese Witherspoon saying that everything is picking up steam.
During a wider interview with Vanity Fair about their various projects, Kidman and Witherspoon were asked to discuss the possibility of more Big Little Lies. “I get the ring ring: ‘Hey, is [season 3] happening?’ Like, Nic!” Witherspoon recalled after her co-star’s previous comments came out. They both agreed that Kidman‘s confirmation was born out of pure excitement, and it didn’t take long for everyone else to start calling. “Then I’ve got Laura [Dern] calling me, and Zoë [Kravitz] and Shailene [Woodley]. They’re all like, ‘Nic said that we’re making Big Little Lies season three?'”
Prospects of returning to Monterey seemed grim only a couple of years back after director Jean-Marc Vallée passed away in late 2021. At the time, Kravitz seemed convinced that his death all but killed any plans of bringing back the show, considering how crucial he was to bringing Moriarty’s novel to television. However, a report from The Hollywood Reporter back in January shared that Kidman and Witherspoon were preparing a formal pitch to share with the brass at HBO. Kidman added in the Vanity Fair interview that the development process is quickly speeding up with Moriarty involved, though she plans to be a little more careful from now on until everyone’s back on set and there are no obstacles left.
“But we are now! We’re moving fast and furious, and Liane [Moriarty] is delivering the book. Yeah, and we’re in good shape. The rest is—we need to shut up, because there’s this whole thing that you should never talk about something until you’ve done it. If you talk about doing it, it’s the dopamine hit of doing it. You feel like you’ve done it. Did you know that? Have you heard about that? It’s a scientific study.
What Is ‘Big Little Lies’ About?
Big Little Lies Season 1 largely stuck to Moriarty’s original novel, following a group of privileged mothers and their young children attending a prestigious elementary school as the single mother Jane (Woodley) enters their social circle and upends everything. The darkly comedic series explored the shady side of the women’s seemingly perfect lives and ended with Celeste’s (Kidman) abusive husband, Perry (Alexander Skarsgård), “accidentally” falling to his death down a flight of stairs. Season 2 addressed the aftermath of the traumatic event and the difficulties for each of the women to move on. David E. Kelley wrote and created the series. If Season 3 does happen, there will be a lot to address both on the screen and behind the scenes, like finding someone to step into the shoes of Vallée as director.
A new season of Big Little Lies is still very early in the process, but it seems far from an impossibility now. Stay tuned here at Collider for more updates as they come out. In the meantime, the first two seasons are available to stream exclusively on Max.
via Collider