No matter how complete a story or self-contained as a miniseries may be, if it’s popular enough, the inevitable question is: Will there be another season? In recent memory, several popular TV shows started as miniseries only to get more seasons, including HBO’s The White Lotus and Netflix’s Beef.

However, none have had quite the same trajectory as Big Little Lies. Premiering in 2017 on HBO, Big Little Lies is based on the bestselling Liane Moriarty novel of the same name. The premise was juicy enough that Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman snapped up the adaptation rights before Big Little Lies was even published in 2014.

Witherspoon and Kidman lead the starry Big Little Lies cast as Madeline Mackenzie and Celeste Wright, two mothers in the affluent community of Monterey, California, who become embroiled in a schoolyard scandal when the new kid at their children’s school is accused of assaulting his classmate. However, a flashforward in the opening scene reveals there’s a murder at a school function, and each episode brings the audience closer and closer to learning how the events are connected.

Not only was Big Little Lies a hit with audiences, but critics as well. The acclaimed series went on to win a whopping eight Primetime Emmy awards, including Outstanding Limited Series and acting trophies for Kidman, Alexander Skarsgård, and Laura Dern. In addition to all that hardware, Big Little Lies earned not one, but two more seasons.

If Big Little Lies were to premiere today, the question wouldn’t be if the show would get another season, but when. However, back in 2017, this trend wasn’t as common, making the show even more of an outlier. Furthermore, the source material was a standalone novel that the seven-episode series wholly adapted.

Still, audience demand for more Big Little Lies was so strong that HBO greenlit a second season. Liane Moriarty wrote a 50,000-word novella to guide the show’s writers, with Big Little Lies season 2 centering on the fallout of the first season’s murder.

Despite adding Meryl Streep to the cast, the second season was widely considered to be inferior to its predecessor. Without a central mystery propelling the plot, many viewers felt like the pacing was too slow and the storylines surrounding the core “Monterey Five” to be overly soap operatic.

When Big Little Lies season 2 ended in 2019, there were whispers of a third season, but nothing came to fruition. However, that all changed in 2025, when HBO officially confirmed that Big Little Lies season 3 was happening. Just like season 1, the upcoming third installment will be a proper adaptation, as it’ll adapt Moriarty’s sequel novel, Big Little Truths, set for publication on August 25, 2026.

The novel features a 10-year time jump, with the Monterey Five now the mothers of teenagers. Like with the first book, Big Little Truths will feature a propulsive mystery, with a threatening package being sent to the school principal’s office that is somehow tied to Madeline’s recent 50th birthday party. With concrete literary source material and an intriguing mystery, Big Little Lies season 3 is shaping up to be a return to form for the game-changing HBO series.

Multiple Shows Tried To Be The Next Big Little Lies

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Big Little Lies ought to feel very, very flattered. Television had been no stranger to domestic thrillers prior to Big Little Lies‘ premiere, with shows like Desperate Housewives, Broadchurch, and The Affair all having devoted fanbases, though none reached the prestige, awards-darling level of the Reese Witherspoon-Nicole Kidman hit.

While television was being taken more seriously than ever before in 2017, with recently-wrapped shows Breaking Bad and Mad Men considered high art, it wasn’t yet common for A-list actors known for their glamorous movie careers to make the leap to the small screen. Thus, when Witherspoon and Kidman, two of Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses, did it, this was considered revolutionary, and many others followed suit.

More than its predecessors, Big Little Lies also nailed the winning formula of extremely wealthy characters living in gorgeous coastal settings and covering up dark, sordid secrets. Furthermore, female characters were the driving force of the story, with authentic and relatable women’s issues peppered into the addictive story. Throw in a murder, and it’s impossible not to want to watch the show.

So, following Big Little Lies‘ commercial, critical, and awards success, many series took that formula and set out to recreate lightning in a bottle. Kidman herself starred in many shows with similar Big Little Lies DNA, including The Undoing, The Perfect Couple, and Nine Perfect Strangers (also based on a Liane Moriarty novel).

While these Kidman series were often dismissed as too soapy and frothy, other shows leaned harder on Big Little Lies‘ gritty drama. Sharp Objects and All Her Fault were all acclaimed thrillers that performed much better with critics than the average Kidman offering. However, by losing the camp, these shows also sacrificed Big Little Lies‘ fun, satirical bite, and didn’t make nearly the same level of impact on pop culture.

Ultimately, even though these shows failed to capture Big Little Lies‘ magic, they were still bingeable, high-quality, and worth watching, which is, funnily enough, yet another feather in Big Little Lies‘ cap. It truly is the television gift that keeps on giving, and with its highly anticipated third season, it’s not done yet.

Release Date

2017 – 2026-00-00

Network

HBO

Showrunner

David E. Kelley

Directors

Jean-Marc Vallee, Andrea Arnold

Writers

T. Rafael Cimino