Russian Doll is one of Netflix‘s best original series, but it’s been radio silence on the show’s potential future for a long time now. Will the Natasha Lyonne and Charlie Barnett mind-bending series ever come back for Season 3? The show’s format certainly allows for it to continue. Series co-creator Leslye Headland is hopeful that the series could have more in store. Lyonne’s Poker Face filming schedule could be making things tricky, but the actor sees a future in store for the series.
Here’s all there is to know right now about the possibility of a Russian Doll Season 3.
Was Russian Doll canceled?
The series has neither been officially renewed nor canceled by Netflix, which is why we’re in limbo waiting for any updates. Season 1 premiered in February 2019, and the second season debuted in April 2022, making that an over three-year gap between releases. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed Season 2 production.
Will there be a Russian Doll Season 3?
Headland co-created Russian Doll with Lyonne and Amy Poehler. Headland told Collider in March 2024 that a Season 3 isn’t out of the question, but she hasn’t heard anything from Netflix about making more episodes.
“I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything. I don’t know if it’s because Natasha’s doing Poker Face now. I don’t know if it’s gonna become a schedule thing, but I haven’t heard anything from Netflix about it,” The Acolyte boss said. But that doesn’t mean there’s no chance of another season.
“No, I think there is. 100 percent,” Headland clarified. “Yeah, I definitely think there is. I just haven’t heard anything about it.”
What has Natasha Lyonne said about Russian Doll Season 3?
Netflix
Lyonne served as showrunner, executive producer, and star on the series, so a third season would likely see her return in the same capacity. That is a time-consuming creative endeavor. Add that to a filming schedule for a lead role in an Emmy-nominated series like Poker Face (which is now filming), and Lyonne’s schedule seems tight. But the Orange Is the New Black alum is confident that Russian Doll could come back — potentially in movie form.
“I think I’m seeing Russian Doll more and more as a Fire Walk With Me or something like the Twin Peaks journey, so you can have this kind of legacy to it,” Lyonne told Deadline in a Poker Face Season 1 interview in June 2023. “And then you’re allowed to kind of make a movie about it whenever you want, on your own timeline.”
This was a followup answer to a question about what was next for Lyonne’s career now that Poker Face Season 1 was done. Poker Face had just been renewed for a second season a couple of months prior to that interview, in which Lyonne said she wanted to prioritize a return to filmmaking next.
“I really want to write and direct my first feature,” Lyonne shared. “That’s become my priority, probably because I’m out here aging, and [thinking about] mortality, and I feel like I’ll be mad at myself if I don’t do it. I’m just a movie lover that got ensconced in this television run from Orange Is the New Black to Russian Doll to Poker Face. I’m so grateful, and it’s been such an incredible time, but it’s sort of left behind my true love, which is Once Upon a Time in America, All That Jazz.”
Lyonne starred in the film His Three Daughters with Carrie Coon and Elizabeth Olsen in 2024. In an interview with The New York Times about the film, Lyonne said she had written her first feature film and is expecting to bring it to life soon. Like Russian Doll, the film messes around with time.
“If you’re a dog person, then you’re going to love it, because it plays with time, just like dog years do,” she said, adding that, “It’s heavy, if you’re a heavy cat, and if you’re an even heavier cat — well, it’s a comedy.” Lyonne did note that the film is still a work in progress, so it may not be ready to film anytime soon. “I don’t really take too seriously a pass as a failure,” she said. “I have a lived experience that it’s actually not how it works. It just hasn’t found its correct permutation yet,” adding, “That’s mostly to say to the kids at home, you never know what the destiny of your own work is.”
In summary, Russian Doll Season 3 or a Russian Doll movie are of interest to the show’s creators.
What could Russian Doll Season 3 be about?
Set four years after Nadia (Lyonne) and Alan (Barnett) escaped mortality’s time loop together, Season 2 of Russian Doll continued to explore existential thematics through an often humorous and sci-fi lens. Discovering a fate even worse than endless death, this season finds Nadia and Alan delving deeper into their pasts through an unexpected time portal located in one of Manhattan’s most notorious locations. At first they experience this as an ever-expanding, era-spanning, intergenerational adventure, but they soon discover this extraordinary event might be more than they bargained for and, together, must search for a way out.
Season 1 showed Lyonne and Barnett’s characters stuck in a loop of dying, coming back to life, and reliving the same day over and over again. Season 2 was a surprise to fans because it added an all-new, unexpected layer to the show’s time-warp twist, sending the main characters back and forward in time whenever they rode the NYC subway. The season ended with some clarity on why Nadia and Alan were experiencing this otherworldly event, but given the huge differences between Seasons 1 and 2, there’s no predicting what could happen in a possible Season 3 or movie.