Big Little Lies Season 3: Everything We Know

Warning: Spoilers for Big Little Lies season 2 ahead.

The Big Little Lies season 2 finale ended with Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz) deciding to turn herself in for pushing Perry down the stairs that fateful night. With the Monterey Five finally freed from their big lie, the story seemed to be at its end; Madeline (Reese Witherspoon) and Ed (Adam Scott) are ready to move on after renewing their vows, Celeste (Nicole Kidman) gets to stay with her kids, Renata (Laura Dern) is finally done with her ranch-betting husband Gordon, and Jane (Shailene Woodley) begins to open up to Corey (Douglas Smith) after a few difficult attempts.

But some viewers had questions, requesting even more closure after that ending. What would happen to Bonnie after her confession—would she be let off the hook for trying to defend her friends? And would the other women be in trouble with the law for helping keep the truth under wraps? Will Ed ever tell Madeline about Tori’s proposal? Is Renata going to rise again, like a beautiful phoenix with a lot of money?

The only way we’d find out is with a third season. Is that in the cards? Here’s everything we know.

Which cast members are interested in doing another season?

Reese Witherspoon was fairly noncommittal at the Big Little Lies season 2 premiere when asked about further seasons: “I don’t know [if it could happen],” she told Entertainment Tonightin May 2019. “I never say never. You don’t know. And [season 2] was a surprise.”

But apparently time (and quarantine) has made her and Laura Dern more interested in returning to their BLL characters. During an Instagram Live together in May, the pair spoke about returning to the world of Monterey. “I really do fantasize that we’ll do it again cause I miss—don’t you miss those characters?” Dern asked. Witherspoon added later in the chat, “We want to do it, we’re just kind of waiting. We’re trying, guys. We’re trying to come up with the right story—and how do we end after that cliffhanger?”

Witherspoon also revealed some celebrity cameo ideas she had for a third season. When asked by Dern who should join the starry cast, she said, “I wish Ice Cube! Ice Cube should be in Big Little Lies 3.” Dern replied, “Hello? Obviously. There’s no question, and such a good actor.” Another possibility, if Witherspoon had her way? “I mean, I’m always hoping for J.Lo to show up, just ’cause I really enjoy some J.Lo,” she admitted.

Nicole Kidman is definitely Team Season 3. In June 2020, she gave two separate interviews that indicated she’d be more than happy to return. “There is always talk of trying to do a season 3,” she confirmed on the Deadline series Behind The Lens. Kidman later added, “We have some ideas. Liane Moriarty has some ideas. [Showrunner] David [Kelley] has some ideas. [Season 1 director] Jean Marc Vallee has ideas. Everybody has ideas. There’s ripe material there.”

The Oscar winner gave a similar answer while speaking on Entertainment Weekly‘s The Awardist podcast. “The role is so beautiful because it’s so, so layered,” she said of her Emmy-winning role as Celeste. “I mean, I could play her for the rest of my life, exploring the way her life unravels. You just go, ‘Ahh, ok, jump off the cliff and try.’ And I’ve always tried that through my whole career anyway, and as a person, you jump off. Why not?”

And in October, she confirmed that, well, something is in the works with season 3. “David [E. Kelley] and Liane have a really good idea for it,” the actress told Marie Claire Australia. She added that Witherspoon, Dern, and Kravitz are all interested in returning to the show. “Watch this space!”

Finally, three years later, on November 17, 2023, during a Q&A session at a Florida event hosted by the LPGA during the CME Group Tour Championship, Deadline reports that Kidman seemingly confirmed season three was coming.

“I loved Big Little Lies because it sort of came a long at a time in my life when I had my children and I was thinking I was going to retire,” Kidman said. “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. Yeah.”

However, Zoë Kravitz has had a very different opinion, especially after the death of the show’s director, director Jean-Marc Vallée, in 2021.

“I don’t think it is [happening],” Kravitz told GQ in November 2022. “We talked about doing a Season 3 a lot. Unfortunately, Jean-Marc Vallée, our incredible director, passed away this last year. It’s heartbreaking. I can’t imagine going on without him. He really was the visionary for that show. Unfortunately, it’s done.”

Has season 3 of Big Little Lies been confirmed?

If Kidman can be taken at her word, yes. But up until her statements, the higher-ups at HBO seem pretty adamant that season 2 will be the final installment of the drama. The show’s creator, David E. Kelley, said all the way back in February 2019 that there was “no such plan” for another season in Monterey. “It’s one and two, and we like our closure with season 2, but that will probably be it.”

He wasn’t alone in suggesting season 3 is off the table. HBO president Casey Bloys told TVLine that the demanding schedules of the show’s A-list cast made further seasons unlikely: “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. We have deals with some of them—Nicole [Kidman] is doing her next show [The Undoing] with us. I just think it’s not realistic.”

But they hedged their bets by suggesting HBO would be up for it if the actors could make it work.

“Look, if they all came to me and said, ‘We worked out all of our schedules!’—then sure,” Bloys told TVLine. “But I just don’t think it’s realistic.”

Calendars may have finally lined up perfectly.