MIST-ers who’ve loved the show for years and those who’ve just now caught up with the addition of Seasons 1 and 2 to Netflix can breathe easy that Murder in a Small Town will be back for a third season. In May, Fox confirmed the fate of the drama andrevealed a key new detail about what’s ahead.
Here’s what we know aboutMurder in a Small Town Season 3.
Is Murder in a Small Town renewed for Season 3?
Yes. Fox officially renewed the series for Season 3 on May 7. The network touted that the second season’s ratings improved on Season 1 and saw series highs on streaming as well.
In a statement, Fox exec Brooke Bowman said, “We love bringing this cozy and delightful mystery to Fox fans, and we’re thrilled Murder in a Small Town has continued to resonate with our audience. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Sepia Films and Future Shack on Season 3, alongside our exceptional cast led by Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk.” She also confirmed a key cast addition….
Who will star in Murder in a Small Town Season 3?
Both Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk will return to their roles as coleads Karl Alberg and Cassandra Lee. They will be joined by Peter Gallagher as Rod Finlayson, who’s described as “a charismatic, uber-independent, capable yet unreliable figure, whose arrival at the Gibsons’ marina on his beloved boat sets up a sequence of upheavals that Karl Alberg and Cassandra will have to grapple with.”
Supporting players who would also be expected to return include Dakota Guppy as Holly, Aaron Douglas as Sid Sokolowski, and Bethany Brown as Layla. It’s unclear whether Savonna Spracklin would return as police official Isabella, since the character has expressed an interest in attending law school; similarly unclear is whether Marcia Gay Harden‘s Mayor Christy Holman would return (although series creator Ian Weir has expressed an interest in having her back, if possible). Others who could return for more are Cassandra Sawtell as Karl’s other daughter, Steph, Teryl Rothery as Cassandra’s mother, Helen, and Joshua Close as Todd Loomis.
When willMurder in a Small Town Season 3 premiere?
It will be part of Fox’s midseason schedule. An exact premiere date is still to be announced. However, Kreuk has said in a social media post that it is expected to premiere in 2027.
Upon wrapping production on Season 3, she wrote, “Wrapped on season 3 of “Murder in a Small Town!” The team has one more day left (a rather exciting one! Unprecedented in the history of our series). And then the majority of us shuffle off The Coast and onto other life things. You all don’t get to see the majority of what this job entails. But what makes this job special is the crew we work with and the Sunshine Coast itself. This season’s work environment has felt particularly cohesive and warm and funny despite whatever challenges have come up along the way. I’ve done a lot of seasons of television, and when the team gels, it’s a good moment, one worth soaking up. It’s never *easy* per se. But it works. I hope you will enjoy our ‘aspirational’ murder show in 2027.”
What will happen in Murder in a Small Town Season 3?
The Season 2 finale was, as promised, a doozy. The final episode, “Nightshade,” brought the season-long mystery of the cold cases investigated by Cassandra Lee (Kristin Kreuk) and Holly (Dakota Guppy) to a thrilling conclusion. Plus, there’s the matter of that engagement proposal that Karl Alberg (Rossif Sutherland) had in store for his girl.
The series’ producers have lifted the veil on some of their hopes for a third season.
Speaking to TV Insider earlier in the second season, executive producer Jeff Wachtel teased, “One of the things that we’ve talked about is building a family, and the notion of inclusion, and also how inclusion is messy, right? It’s easy to exclude people, but once you start to bring people in and try to create a family, that gets kind of messy, and Karl blew it the first time. And he’s a very fortunate guy that he didn’t lose the relationship with his now-adult children, or almost-adult children, and he gets a second crack at it. And for him to have success this time, he is going to really need to lean into his more thoughtful, caring, intuitive self, which is certainly there, and it’s there in the person of Alberg, but it’s really there in the person of Rossif, who is so much that man. So it’s going to be not just a subtext tool… It’s going to be part of the text of Season 3 as he tries to do better this time.”
He also hinted that we could delve more into Karl’s backstory, particularly with the mystery of his father still at issue. “Season 3, knock on wood, should we be fortunate to get there, is going to be about that, and in Season 2, we really lay a lot of that framework of that abandonment, that Karl felt from his dad, and how it impacted the way he looks at relationships and has kind of damaged him as a grown-up. So we’ve experienced a lot of that as these two people, Karl and Cassandra, are getting to know each other and each other’s relative vulnerabilities, and then knock wood, if we get our show continuing, that’s something we’re really going to dive into.”
Meanwhile, fellow EP Tina Pehme teased that Cassandra’s reticence to truly let Karl in — as evidenced by her cagey behavior when he came to her house and, later, her decision to conceal the truth of why she left Sacramento — will come into play in a big way. “It is about family and about compromise and also holding on… What is she going to hold on to? What do they give back? What do they give to each other? What do they crack open?”
Following that romantic finale cliffhanger, we also caught up with Rossif Sutherland and Ian Weir to dissect what they think next, so read all about that right here.
Murder in a Small Town, Fox