Shailene Woodley Confirms Big Little Lies Season 3 Is Finally Happening

If you ever needed a reminder of how quickly a shiny new drama can blitz its way through the awards circuit and then vanish from the face of the earth, look no further than Big Little Lies. HBO's glossy Monterey murder mystery had everyone gossiping after it steamrolled the 2017 Emmys (eight wins, not bad at all), and its ensemble – Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Zoë Kravitz – quickly became known as the Monterey Five (though in true TV tradition, it was really the Monterey Four and Shailene Woodley looking faintly traumatised). Series two turned up in 2019, dragged Meryl Streep into the mix for good measure, and since then, it’s been nothing but echoes and cryptic DMs from the cast. The burning question has always been: will these women ever return to their multi-million dollar misery on the California coast?

An Actual Update (Sort Of)

Finally, someone’s actually said something – sort of. Shailene Woodley, out doing press for her Hulu drama Paradise, was cornered about the chances of a third season, and didn’t exactly spill state secrets, but did let slip more than anyone else since 2019:

"I mean, what I know about it is that supposedly it is happening. That is what I know... I love my girls. That’s what makes it so special. We’re each other’s people. We love each other and we’re here for each other and, also, it’s a blast to play these characters."

Not quite the sort of confirmation you’d bet your house on, but we’ve had years of vague enthusiasm from Kidman and Witherspoon with nothing turning up, so this is the closest anyone’s got to saying it’s on.

Why the Long Wait?

There haven’t exactly been wild conspiracies swirling about why season three couldn’t get going. The logistics have always been a nightmare: when you’ve got five A-listers with busier diaries than most world leaders, finding a few months where they can all be on the same set is a miracle in itself. It got significantly harder after Jean-Marc Vallée, who directed that dreamlike, jigsaw-puzzle first season, died in 2021. Recreating that style without simply copying his homework is a hurdle for anyone taking over.

The Story Problem

Season one drew most of its strength from Liane Moriarty’s novel: strictly one-and-done, a rare story that knew when to quit. Season two happened because the show was such a massive hit that HBO wanted more, so Moriarty wrote a 50,000-word novella (unpublished) just to prop up the scripts – and frankly, it felt like it. Now, for round three, Moriarty has written a fully-fledged sequel, Big Little Truths, coming out this August. This will be the basis for the new season, and – twist – audiences can actually read the book before the show airs, which will probably kick off the usual spoiler stampede.

Where Are They Now?

• NICOLE KIDMAN: Always working, always winning awards, seems game for a return if the pieces fit.
• REESE WITHERSPOON: Has basically become America’s unofficial book club president, produces half of Hollywood, also keeps hinting about coming back.
• LAURA DERN: Popped up in everything from Marriage Story to Jurassic World, never not busy.
• ZOË KRAVITZ: Picked up her own franchise baton with The Batman and keeps things cryptic.
• SHAILENE WOODLEY: Fresh off her praised run in Paradise, and juggling a Janis Joplin biopic she’s been attached to since the Divergent era – she offered zero comment on that for Deadline, in case you were wondering.

What Could a Third Season Look Like?

The idea, according to both Woodley and other recent cast whisperings, is to move the timeline on a full decade. The once-small kids of the Monterey Five would now be teens or adults, and the simmering secrets get another ten years to fester (as is traditional for glossy mystery series). Woodley sounded genuinely keen about the prospect:

"I’m really excited about the third season, and for the opportunity that might exist in exploring who these ladies are 10 years later. We’re all 10 years older. The children are all 10 years older. They’re not really children anymore and most of them are adults now. So the prospect of that is very cool."

The biggest question that remains is whether HBO can actually wrangle all five back into the same beach house, or whether we’ll be treated to seven more years of social media speculation and the occasional dinner party selfie. Either way, the usual substitutes for intense personal drama and rolling Pacific fog have started to run out. Even a half-hearted maybe carries more weight after this long.