Creator David E. Kelley told the Gotham TV Awards crowd on June 2 that he is “hopeful” Big Little Lies will return and stressed that the Monterey Five “all want to do it again.” The drama has been off the air since 2019, yet enthusiasm from Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern and Zoë Kravitz remains high.
Kelley cautioned that “nobody’s under contract,” noting the challenge of aligning top-tier schedules, publicists and pay-scale expectations. He added that season three would adapt a new novel now being written by Liane Moriarty, although development is still “very premature.”
HBO drama chief Francesca Orsi echoed that view in March, revealing the network has received roughly 150 pages of Moriarty’s manuscript but will “sit tight” until the book is complete. Programming president Casey Bloys has said the channel is open to more episodes once the cast can align, describing the current status as a matter of timing rather than appetite.
Witherspoon repeated the waiting game in October 2024, telling E! News that she and Kidman expect “new material very soon” and are intrigued by scripts that age the children into their teens. Kidman’s earlier 2023 remark that a third season was already happening prompted immediate calls from cast-mates seeking clarity.
Kravitz has voiced caution, arguing in a 2022 GQ interview that continuing without late director Jean-Marc Vallée “is hard to imagine,” and describing him as the show’s guiding force. Her hesitation offers a counterpoint to the prevailing optimism and underscores the creative void left by Vallée’s death in 2021.
If Moriarty delivers, sources say the story will incorporate a time jump, bringing the characters’ children into turbulent adolescence—an angle producers believe could refresh the series while acknowledging real-world years lost to pandemic delays and strike-related slowdowns. For now, the project hangs on two signatures: a finished manuscript and a bundle of cast contracts.
