Barry Season 3 - What We Know So Far

It's been almost two whole years since "Barry" had its Season 2 finale. Fans have been eagerly anticipating the return of the pitch-black, Emmy-winning HBO comedy about a professional hitman trying and failing to put his history of violence behind him — and start a new life as an actor — since around the same time "Game of Thrones" ended.

Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger. Fuches (Stephen Root), Barry's (Bill Hader) former murder-broker whom he has turned against, showed Barry's acting teacher and mentor Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) the body of his missing girlfriend, Det. Janice Moss (Paula Newsome), who Barry murdered at the end of Season 1 when she figured out that he was the killer she was pursuing. In the final moments of Season 2, Gene remembered what Fuches whispered in his ear while showing him Janice's body: "Barry Berkman did this." So Season 3 will set up a new, direct conflict between Barry and Gene.

Beyond that, we don't know too much for sure about what will happen in "Barry" Season 3, or when it will premiere on HBO and HBO Max. But the things that Hader and company have said about the future of "Barry" are pretty exciting. Here's what we know so far.

"Barry" was renewed for Season 3 while the second season was still airing, per The Hollywood Reporter. Season 3 probably would have premiered sometime in 2020 if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn't happened, but the schedule got shifted and the third season didn't start shooting until early this year, according to Deadline. However, Henry Winkler contradicted that report, telling The Hollywood Reporter in March that he would be returning to "Barry" this summer, so we're not sure quite what the production schedule is at this point. Whatever is happening, there's no premiere date yet, and considering how many shows HBO has on its slate and this particular show's relatively late-in-the-pandemic production resumption, it seems unlikely that the show will air in 2021. But we'll see.

The good news is that Hader, co-creator Alec Berg, and their writers used their production downtime to write all of Season 4, too. In January, Hader told Seth Meyers that they wrote a fourth season during quarantine even though it hadn't been officially greenlit. And even though it hasn't been officially greenlit, "Barry" is extremely likely to get a fourth season, according to HBO and HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys.

"Typically, we don't pick up things until they air but if I was betting on whether we would do more, I think that is a very safe bet," Bloys told Deadline.

The major players in "Barry" can all be assumed to return. That means Bill Hader as Marine-turned-hitman-turned aspiring actor Barry Berkman, Henry Winkler as acting teacher Gene Cousineau, Sarah Goldberg as Sally Reed, Barry's narcissistic girlfriend, Stephen Root as Barry's nemesis Monroe Fuches, and Anthony Carrigan as NoHo Hank, the fan-favorite genial Chechen mobster who just wants to be Barry's best friend.

Beyond that, it's hard to say who will return for Season 3. Bolivian drug kingpin Cristobal (Daniel Irby) survived Barry's massacre at the end of Season 2, so it's possible we'll see him again. Maybe some of the members of Gene's class will return, like D'arcy Carden, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Darrell Britt-Gibson, who was Daniel Kaluuya's Oscars guest. Or will we find out what happened to Lily (Jessie Giacomazzi), the little girl seemingly possessed by the spirit of a "feral mongoose" who defeated Barry in combat and disappeared into the night in the episode "ronny/lily"? Would we even want to?

No new series regulars or guest stars have been announced for Season 3 yet. 

As for the plot, it will surely pick up where Season 2 left off, with Barry dealing with Gene knowing who he really is, the fallout from single-handedly massacring a temple full of Chechen, Burmese, and Bolivian gangsters, his evolving relationship with Sally, and potential progress in his acting career after an audition that impressed director Jay Roach.

Hader told TV Guide after the Season 2 finale that he didn't want the show to turn into a series of farcical "near-misses," so he had to have Gene find out that Barry killed Janice. But he didn't know what was going to happen after that. "So that's how we're starting [Season 3]," he said. "The first day of writing Season 2 was, 'What happened to Moss.' We didn't know what happened to Moss. And then I know in Season 3, we'll probably say, 'All right, we really dealt ourselves a hand here,' but I think the first thing we'll say is, 'Where's Barry at emotionally? And where's Cousineau at, and what's Cousineau doing with this information?' and all that."