Will the small-town romantic drama be back for a fourth season? Here’s everything we know so far.

By Lauren Morris

Published: Wednesday, 28 July 2021 at 12:00 am

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Virgin River returned at the start of the month with its long-awaited third season and what a season it turned out to be, with a shock death, another surprise pregnancy and another set of cliffhangers that have us desperate for season four.

Thankfully, Tim Matheson, who plays Doc in the show, recently revealed to RadioTimes.com that filming on new episodes was due to begin very soon, while Lynda Boyd, who plays Lily, teased that we may not have seen the last of her character.

As for Lizzie and Ricky, who sadly broke up at the end of season three, Grayson Gurnsey has hinted at a potential reunion for the couple despite Ricky’s plans to join the marines.

“I do hope they get back together, but on mutual terms where she has forgiven him and he has learned his lesson — not out of shame or guilt, but out of a genuine understand of her feelings,” he said.

Read on for all the latest news around Virgin River season four, including cast announcements, plot reveals and trailers.

Will there be a fourth season of Virgin River?

While Netflix has not yet officially confirmed whether Virgin River is returning for a fourth season, Tim Matheson, who plays Doc in the show, revealed the RadioTimes.com that filming is due to begin very soon.

In an exclusive interview, Matheson said that filming for season 4 will begin “any day now”.

This lines up with ProductionWeekly‘s June issue which reports that shooting on Virgin River season four is due to start in late July and expected to finish by 30th November in Vancouver, Canada.

RadioTimes.com has contacted Netflix for comment. As for official confirmation, make sure to keep checking this page for the latest news on Virgin River season four.

Virgin River season 4 release date

If the reports are to be believed that season four filming will begin in July and end in November, it’s likely that the series will return to our screens at the start of 2022 at the earliest.

Fans had to wait just under a year after season one for season two’s release date, however the wait has been even shorter for season three, which arrived after just seven months.

While it may be overly optimist to hope for season four by February/March, hopefully we’ll have it by summer 2022 by the latest!

Virgin River season 4 cast

It wouldn’t be Virgin River if Alexandra Breckenridge and Martin Henderson didn’t return as midwife Mel Monroe and bar owner Jack Sheridan so we’d expect to see them in a fourth season, while you can expect Colin Lawrence (Preacher), Lauren Hammersley (Charmaine Roberts), Tim Matheson (Vernon ‘Doc’ Mullins), Benjamin Hollingsworth (Dan Brady), Grayson Gurnsey (Ricky) and Sarah Dugdale (Lizzie) to reprise their roles in another season.

Annette O’Toole, who plays Hope in Virgin River, was noticeably less present in season three, with the character visiting an elderly relative in another state, getting stuck there due to a hurricane and only appearing via Zoom. The show’s creator Sue Tenney revealed that Hope’s absence was down to O’Toole being unable to film on set due the pandemic, however a representative for O’Toole recently told RadioTimes.com that she will be back on screen for season four.

Unfortunately, Lynda Boyd won’t be returning to Virgin River for season four as her character Lilly dies towards the end of season three after being diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer. However, Boyd recently revealed to RadioTimes.com that producers are planning to bring Lilly back in flashbacks.

“When I did have that chat that day with those producers, they said that the plan was to bring me back in flashbacks – like Mel’s husband, her dead husband.”

As for supporting characters, we’re hoping this isn’t the last we see of Jack’s sister Brie (Zibby Allen) and Lilly’s daughter Tara (Stacey Farber), while we’d love to see Nicola Cavendish (Connie), Teryl Rothery (Muriel) and Lexa Doig (Paige Lassiter) return for season four.

How many seasons of Virgin River will there be?

We currently don’t know whether Virgin River will definitely be returning for a fourth season, let alone a fifth, sixth or seventh, bu, given the show’s huge popularity and the seemingly-constant cliffhangers, we’re likely to see more of Mel and Jack in the future.

With a lot to explore in future series – from Hope’s brain injury to the paternity of Mel’s child – we’ll hopefully see a couple more seasons of Virgin River, especially since there are 22 books in Robyn Carr’s novel series to work with.

Virgin River season 4 plot

**Spoilers ahead for Virgin River season three**

It’s hard to predict what season four is likely to cover – although Virgin River showrunner Sue Tenney has already given us some hints.

It looks as though the mystery surrounding Jack’s shooting is expected to spill over into a fourth season, with Tenney telling Us Weekly: “There will be an arrest at the end of season three — but everything is not the way it looks. The story is not over with the arrest.”

Martin Henderson, who plays Jack, recently told Entertainment Weekly that he now knows who shot Jack. “And the fact that I know makes me feel like the audience is going to find out.”

He added: “They toyed with the idea of revealing that in season 3. There were drafts where we were going to actually get a little more information, and you would find more out. But for a bunch of reasons, they decided to extend that. So that can be dragged out a little bit.

“It would be unfair to the audience to not have that result. That would feel a little tacky to string them along and then keep it a mystery. There has to be resolution, and obviously, it further complicates his relationship with Brady and it’ll be nice to see some of that stuff resolved hopefully too, and maybe heal going forward.”

Fingers crossed he’s right and we do find out next season!

Season four is also likely to pick up after the massive twist in the season three finale, which saw Jack propose to Mel and Mel reveal that she’s pregnant before adding that she’s not 100 per cent sure if the father is Jack or her late husband Mark (Daniel Gillies).

A couple of episodes before, we saw Jack break up with Mel after the pair decided that they wanted different things, and so we can assume that Mel headed to the IVF clinic, using frozen embryos she stored away when her husband Mark was alive. In the next series, we’re likely to watch the fallout of this bombshell news and eventually find out who the baby’s father really is.

In fact, when recently asked about the paternity of Mel’s baby, Tenney told TVLine: “You’ll find out by the end of the fourth season.”

Teasing the events of season four, Henderson revealed to Entertainment Weekly that it’s going to be “a tough pill to swallow” for Jack and hinted that he may not want to marry Mel after all. “I don’t know exactly how he’s going to feel about it. There’s some other unanswered questions that have to be figured out.”

As for Mel’s point of view, Alexandra Breckenridge recently told TVLine that while she was sceptical of the story line at first, she came around to it. “It ties itself together, and it makes more sense to me at the end.

“While I was going through it, I was like, ‘What is Mel doing? This is a crazy thing to do!’ That goes to show that, as an actor, you have to trust in the process and in the writers to take you on the journey. That was what I learned.”

Of course, there’s also the matter of Jack and Charmaine’s twins after Charmaine revealed that she’ll try to win full custody of them when they’re born. This legal dispute will pave the way for Brie to have a bigger role in the series, according to Tenney who said: “We will utilise the fact that Brie is an attorney in the show going forward.”

Henderson has also revealed that the custody battle over the twins and the prospect of being the father to Mel’s unborn baby is due to take a toll on Jack’s mental health.

“He’s struggling with demons, and there’s grief there and a lot of it’s unexamined. He has this caretaker effect where he feels like it’s his responsibility to take care of anyone in the town that needs it,” he said. “He goes out of his way and, and although that’s a nice positive attribute, it’s also potentially a compensatory one where he’s also nursing some of his own wounds and regrets and guilt, you know, and I think, I think that’s definitely at play. And, if we are lucky enough to get more seasons, it’ll be nice to explore that aspect of the characters psyche.”

Let’s not forget about Ricky (Grayson Gurnsey) and Lizzie (Sarah Dugdale), who broke up at the end of season three after Ricky decided to enlist in the marines without telling Lizzie.

On whether the two teens could reunite, Gurnsey told TVLine: “I do hope they get back together, but on mutual terms where she has forgiven him and he has learned his lesson — not out of shame or guilt, but out of a genuine understand of her feelings.

“That was Ricky’s whole problem this season. He understood that he messed up, but he would never really take it to heart. That’s what he needs to learn if he wants to get back together with her — he needs to understand her feelings.”

That being said, he added that while Ricky and Lizzie’s love is genuine, it’s also “puppy love”.

“When it’s your first love, you might not necessarily love that person for the right reasons, but you can still learn something very valuable and become a better person from that relationship.”

There’s also Hope to worry about, who was hospitalised with a traumatic brain injury after getting into a car accident in the season three finale. Not to fear – Sue Tenney has teased the plot for a fourth season, saying: “We do move ahead.

“To us, it’s the recovery and what she’s dealing with – a traumatic brain injury,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “In a hospital and going through recovery, that’s not really where our show lives. But we’re very committed to what the truth of something is, so we’ll go to the edge of what’s the best recovery for this.

“We always stick with the parameters, medically, but also we know at this point what we like to do, which are complicated emotionally drama-based stories.”

Of course, Lilly (Lynda Boyd) died in season three of Virgin River, however the show’s creator Sue Tenney has revealed that her death will continue to affect relationships in season four.

“It’s a death that affects everybody, and it will continue to affect everybody in [a potential fourth] season,” she told TV Line. “That’s really special, to have one character that leaves a lasting imprint on the audience and on the characters at large in our show. Her death also to bring Jack and Mel back together. The death of Lilly, as deaths do, helps them hyper focus on the important stuff in life and take away the B.S.”

Virgin River seasons 1-3 are available to stream on Netflix. Check out our lists of the best series on Netflix and the best movies on Netflix – or see what else is on with our TV Guide. Visit our Drama hub for all the latest news.

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