A third season of Big Little Lies is ramping up at HBO, as the cable and streaming outlet has hired Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-creator Francesca Sloane to write a first episode of the show.
Sloane has also signed a two-year overall deal with HBO, where she’ll also develop and produce other material. Big Little Lies is now formally in development again there, following years of speculation about a potential third season — a good bit of which came from its core cast and creative team.
The series, based on Liane Moriarty’s novel of the same name, last aired in 2019. Stars and executive producers Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, along with other members of the cast, have mused about a third season a number of times since then. In June, series creator David E. Kelley said he was “hopeful” another season would happen.
Related Stories
Moriarty also announced late last year that she was working on a sequel to her book that would jump ahead several years. The show’s first season more or less followed the plot of the book, while season two chronicled the aftermath of season one’s mystery.
Sloane will executive produce Big Little Lies season three along with Kelley, Witherspoon and Kidman. She co-created Mr. & Mrs. Smith with Donald Glover and was the showrunner on season one and earned Emmy nominations for writing and as an EP on the show’s best drama series nomination. Production on show’s second season has been paused, however.
Sloane’s credits also include FX’s Atlanta and Fargo and Netflix’s Seven Seconds.
Deadline first reported the news.