If it seems like a lifetime ago that we were all talking about Big Little Lies, it’s because it might as well be. The second season of the HBO series wrapped in 2019, and so much has happened since then that it wouldn’t be surprising if we never got another installment of the stunning seaside properties and Real Housewives of Monterey-worthy storylines. Yet, the show’s major players have never ruled out another go-around, and it’s now been officially announced that work on the series’ third season is underway.
Stars Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon are set to return and lead the cast (in addition to executive producing). According to Variety, Francesca Sloane, a screenwriter who co-created the currently stalled Mr. & Mrs. Smith series with Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, will write the first episode (she’ll be executive producing, too).
Last August, Kidman hinted that the series would be returning in a video for Vanity Fair. “We’re moving fast and furious,” Kidman told Witherspoon in the video. “Liane [Moriarty] is delivering the book. We’re in good shape.”
Season one of Big Little Lies was based on Moriarty’s novel of the same name, while the second season was based on original material by the author. Variety reports that a sequel novel by Moriarty is due for publication in 2026.
It’s anyone’s guess what direction the show will go in. Fans will recall that season one starred Kidman as Celeste, a former lawyer and current housewife married to an abusive businessman, Perry (a menacing Alexander Skarsgård). Witherspoon played Celeste’s plucky best friend (and Adam Scott her long-suffering husband), with Laura Dern as a high-powered tech exec, Zoë Kravitz as Witherspoon’s ex-husband’s hot new wife, and Shailene Woodley as a struggling single mom. Meryl Streep memorably joined the cast for season two as Perry’s mother.
Back in 2019, Kidman noted that season two almost didn’t happen. “I had a lot of people say to me, ‘No, no, no, that’s it. You did only one. It was fantastic as one season,’” she said. “And a friend of mine, a male, said, ‘Those women deserve their stories to be told beyond what was just that first season.’”
Kidman and Moriarty, both Australian, have become constant collaborators since that first season of the show, with Kidman also producing and starring in an adaptation of Moriarty’s Nine Perfect Strangers for HBO, in addition to an adaptation of her novel The Last Anniversary, which will premiere on Australian streaming service Binge. Perhaps Kidman will help advise her on where Celeste’s journey will take us next.
