Spoilers below.
The Big Little Lies season 2 finale back in 2019 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.
Has Big Little Lies been renewed for season 3?
HBO has not made an official announcement, but reps from the network and the cast sure seem interested. Their feelings on continuing the show have evolved since the last season.
The show’s creator, David E. Kelley, said in February 2019 that there was “no such plan” for another season. “It’s one and two, and we like our closure with season 2, but that will probably be it.”
Kelley wasn’t alone in suggesting that season 3 was off the table. HBO president, Casey Bloys, told TVLine in 2019 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.”
Laura Dern and Zoé Kravitz in Big Little Lies season 2.
But it turns out, calendars may finally be lining up perfectly. In January 2024, Kidman revealed to Entertainment Tonight that things are in motion. “We are always cooking things up,” she said. “We’ve got a timeline for it now.” Kidman explained that after “letting things find their way,” she believes that “the time is now” for a season 3.
“We are obviously all devastated at the loss of Jean-Marc Vallée,” she added, referencing their filmmaker and director who passed away on Christmas Day 2021. “That made us go, ‘Can we move forward?’ But Reese and I, and all of the other women, have decided, yes we can.”
Kravitz previously discussed how Vallée’s passing made it unlikely for the show to continue. “I can’t imagine going on without him. He really was the visionary for that show. Unfortunately, it’s done,” she told GQ in November 2022. But things have changed since then. Speaking to ELLE recently, Kravitz said of a possible third season, “We all really want to do it and are all really excited, and I think it’s gonna happen.” She jokingly added that fans should continue “being vocal” about wanting another season to “pressure HBO into getting it going.”
Who will be in the cast?
We’re of course hoping that all the leads return: Reese Witherspoon as Madeline, Nicole Kidman as Celeste, Laura Dern as Renata, Zoë Kravitz as Bonnie, and Shailene Woodley as Jane. Each of the stars has recently expressed interest in coming back. Any additional casting announcements haven’t been made yet.
“Everyone wants to do it, and we’re like, ‘Call us and tell us when and where,’” Kravitz told ELLE for our March 2025 cover story. “That would be amazing if that could happen this year—I would be over the moon.”
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 Tonight in 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 2022, 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?”
In 2024, Witherspoon attended the Golden Globes with her son, Deacon Phillippe, and confirmed they had a season 3 in the works during an interview on the red carpet. “We are working on it,” she said. “Nic and I have been working on it a lot.”
Nicole Kidman was Team Season 3 long before that. 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. She added, “Everybody has ideas. There’s ripe material there.” She also spoke about reprising her role as Celeste on Entertainment Weekly’s The Awardist podcast: “I mean, I could play her for the rest of my life, exploring the way her life unravels.”
And in October 2020, she confirmed that, well, something is in the works for another season. “David [E. Kelley] and Liane [Moriarty, the Big Little Lies author] 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 Nov. 17, 2023, during a Q&A session at a Florida event hosted by the LPGA during the CME Group Tour Championship, Deadline reported that Kidman seemingly confirmed season 3 was coming.
“I loved Big Little Lies because it sort of came along 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.”
Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman, Zoé Kravitz, Reese Witherspoon, and Shailene Woodley at the 2018 Golden Globes.
In fact, Kidman’s daughter, Sunday, encouraged her to continue the series. “My daughter is the one who watched both of the series and went, ‘Okay, there’s just no question, there has to be a third,’” she said in ELLE’s April 2024 issue. “She’s like, ‘Celeste, she’s not coping in the second one, what is she doing? I could kind of see the point of view of Mary Louise.’”
Kidman also shared she and Witherspoon were texting about revisiting their characters. “There’s the richness of the storylines, which we’d always discussed, but it needed time because there’s actual unbelievable depth to the next chapter of these women’s lives and their children’s lives—because children grow up, and that’s kind of fascinating,” she added to ELLE.
She also said of getting to reunite with her beloved co-stars, “I think when you’re all scattered and never sort of cross paths, it’s very, very different. But when you’re all still very intertwined, that’s what makes it doable, because there’s a willingness and you want to spend time together.”
Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, and Nicole Kidman in Big Little Lies.
On The Tonight Show in December 2024, Woodley discussed learning from Kidman that season 3 is on. “She’s like, ‘It’s happening.’ I was like, ‘It is? It’s happening?’ She’s like, ‘Yeah.’ I was like, ‘But when? How? When? Why? How?’”
She continued, explaining what caused the delays: “I think it’s a lot of people with a lot of schedules. And our beautiful director from season 1 [Jean-Marc Vallée] passed away. And that was really hard for everyone. So I think the whole experience has been a little bit one of trying to find all the right pieces to come together.”
What’s the current status of the show?
The future of the series is kind of in Moriarty’s hands. Witherspoon said that the team is waiting for her to complete the sequel book to Big Little Lies (which was first published in 2014) to see where the story will go next.
“Nicole and I have been waiting,” she told E! News in October 2024. “We’re in waiting for Liane Moriarty. She’s going to be turning in something very soon. We’re back to the original author, and we’re going to go back to the original characters.”
She added, “It’s exciting, too, because I think the kids are probably a little bit older now. So that might add another element. I don’t know yet, I haven’t read it yet.”
Bloys echoed Witherspoon’s statement a month later. “[Nicole’s] very excited. They’re all excited. We’re excited. We’re all waiting for the book, which I believe is coming soon, but I do not have a copy in my hands,” he said, according to Deadline.
What will season 3 be about?
While fans can speculate about where the series could go next, we can look to Moriarty for clues. The author confirmed in August 2024 that she was writing a sequel to Big Little Lies, which will feature a time jump from the original story. The publish date for the book is still unknown.
“Because I wrote Big Little Lies when my children were little and the children in the story are just starting kindergarten and now, of course, my children are all teenagers, so they’re providing a wealth of teen material,” she told RadioTimes.com in September 2024. “So, I’m writing a sequel with all the children as teenagers so now the women are the parents of teens.”
When asked about a time jump, she confirmed, “Yes, yes exactly.”
She added that the main women will all be featured in the story: “It’s still early stages so I can’t really tell you anything much except that they’re parenting teens. I’ve got them [all the main women], they’re all there for sure.”
This story will be updated.