'Tell Me Lies' Season 3: Everything We Know

Ever since the emotional rollercoaster that is Tell Me Lies premiered on Hulu, with every season, it leaves fans clamoring for more sordid affairs. Based on Carola Lovering's novel of the same name, the drama follows the toxic on-again, off-again relationship between Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen DeMarco (Jackson White), who met as students during Lucy's freshman year at the fictional Baird College. As the years go on, their relationship devolves into a mess, as they occasionally cheat on their respective partners with each other.

Season 2 concluded with an explosive finale that begged for more episodes that would deal with the fallout of a decade-long revenge plot. Thankfully, Hulu knew it couldn't leave fans with that cliffhanger and renewed Tell Me Lies in mid-December 2024, two months after the season 2 finale. (It was all but a given: the show is wildly popular and remained in Hulu's Top 15 Today list for 50 days while season 2 aired.)

As it's almost time to be back on campus at Baird, read on for everything we know about Tell Me Lies season 3 so far.

When will 'Tell Me Lies' season 3 come out?

In November 2025, Hulu confirmed via a press release that season 3 of Tell Me Lies will officially premiere on Tuesday, January 13. Two episodes will drop on that date, with the rest of the season rolling out weekly.

It didn't take too long for the streaming hit to return; after the show was renewed in late 2024, production began in May 2025. At the time, Hulu shared a photo of star Grace Van Patten on set on X, along with the post: "your next crash out is in production."

Thankfully, the hiatus between seasons was nowhere nearly as long as the two years between seasons 1 and 2. (Season 1 debuted in October 2022, with season 2 following in September 2024.) We're ready for that "crash out" to begin!

Who in the 'Tell Me Lies' cast will return for season 3?

Since Tell Me Lies wouldn't be the same without Lucy and Stephen, Grace Van Patten and Jackson White will return for season 3. The rest of the main cast will also reprise their roles, including Catherine Missal (Bree), Spencer House (Wrigley), Sonia Mena (Pippa), Branden Cook (Evan), Alicia Crowder (Diana), Natalee Linez (Lydia), and Katherine Hughes (Molly).

As for one of the show's most shocking plot lines, Tom Ellis will return as Oliver in season 3. A first-look photo of the new episodes, released in November 2025, confirmed the news. Previously, it was unclear whether the actor and husband of the series creator, Meaghan Oppenheimer, would come back for more. (She had told Variety that season 2 had "wrapped up his storyline in a way that really worked.")

Are there any new cast members in 'Tell Me Lies' season 3?

Yes! After months of no news coming out about Tell Me Lies season 3, Deadline reported the first casting announcement in May 2025. The upcoming installment will feature a new face in Costa D’Angelo. The rising Australian actor (who's appeared on a few Aussie shows like Neighbours and in Rebel Wilson's directorial debut The Deb) will be in a series regular role as Alex. According to the outlet, Alex is "a psychology grad student and part-time drug dealer who has a complicated past with Bree." He's said to come off as "aloof and borderline rude," but it's soon revealed "that there are hidden depths to him."

He's not the only new name in season 3. In June, Deadline reported that Iris Apatow will appear in a recurring role. She's said to play "Amanda, a bubbly but fragile college freshman keeping a big secret."

Apatow will soon appear in the star-studded action movie Ballerina Overdrive, and is known for roles in shows like Love and Unstable, as well as several movies produced by or opposite her comedy power couple parents, Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann.

What will 'Tell Me Lies' season 3 be about?

Hulu has released an official season 3 synopsis: "Tell Me Lies season 3 follows Lucy Albright (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen DeMarco (Jackson White) as they've rekindled their tumultuous romance in time for spring semester at Baird College. While they promise things will be different this time, past indiscretions hinder their best intentions, and Lucy finds herself embroiled in a controversy she wants nothing to do with. Meanwhile, the disastrous repercussions from the previous year also force Lucy and Stephen's friends to face their own destructive behaviors. As scandalous secrets fester around campus, vicious consequences threaten Lucy and everyone in her circle."

More specifically, in the season 2 finale, fans saw Stephen and Lucy's years-long toxicity come to a head as Bree and Evan's wedding is about to start. After Lucy's boyfriend Max breaks up with her, she immediately runs to Stephen for comfort, but Stephen doesn't go with the (allegedly) happy ending. Instead, moments before Bree is about to walk down the aisle, Stephen texts Bree an 8-year-old audio recording of Evan confessing to cheating on her with Lucy at that Hawaiian college party. So there's that to deal with going forward.

In addition to potentially starting the next season with a runaway bride scenario, the forthcoming episodes have many other dangling plot threads to follow. We still don't know how Stephen became engaged to Lucy's ex-bestie, Lydia, in the later timeline, nor how the illicit college affair between Bree and Oliver (and now Marianne) will conclude. There's also Pippa's journey in (hopefully) seeking justice for her assault and the shocking death of Wrigley's brother, Drew. That's not to mention that, as of season 2's ending, nearly no one knows about Stephen's involvement in Macy's death.

Over the past two seasons, Tell Me Lies has expanded beyond its source novel, including the roles and storylines of several supporting characters, like the lead duo's friends. Still, the series mostly sticks to the basic events of the novel; season 1 covered about a third of the book's material, and season 2 has taken even more creative license over the book's plot. With many of the show's major characters (especially Lydia) on paths that are original to the show, reading the book will only give minimal insight into what's ahead.

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Is there a trailer for 'Tell Me Lies' season 3?

Oh, boy, is there ever? Hulu dropped a trailer for Tell Me Lies season 3 in late December, and it's a doozy. The clip builds off last season's cliffhanger, as it teases Lucy spiraling from whatever she (and potentially her friends) did that would cause Stephen to seek revenge on her years later.

It shows Lucy and Stephen briefly reconciling and deciding to be together, as she says to him, "We have to be nice to each other this time." Inevitably, that doesn't work out, as we later see her stressed about something that she suspects Stephen will hold over her and her friends "forever."

"Why are you doing this?" Lucy asks Stephen at one point, to which he ominously responds, "Because I want to hurt you and I don’t know how else to do it."

On top of that, there are shots of Lucy recording some sort of apology video and talking with her friends about hitting rock bottom and making mistakes, as well as a handful of maximalist Y2K beauty looks (so much glitter!), footage of wild parties, and many intense, enraged glares. Thankfully, we'll get to see all of that (and likely even more madness) soon.

What has the cast and crew said about 'Tell Me Lies' season 3?

In a season 2 finale breakdown with Variety, Tell Me Lies creator and executive producer Oppenheimer teased that season 3 may include a time jump, with the new episodes likely focusing more on the 2015 timeline than the 2008 college days. (To be fair, we have way more questions about where the friend group ended up later.)

"I did map that out way in advance when I just thought about what the structure of the show was," Oppenheimer said of plans to include more 2015 scenes. "And I thought, we’ll get more and more of the future as time goes on. I think by the third season, we will still have some 2008 because there’s stuff that we have to wrap up there. But I think it would be a little bit shifted in the sense that there will probably be more 2015 than 2008."

Meanwhile, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, stars Van Patten and White (who are dating in real life) shared their thoughts on the bonkers finale cliffhanger and their characters' futures. "I could not believe that Stephen had recorded Evan saying that [he cheated on Bree with Lucy], and saved it for how many years? Eight years," Van Patten said of the moment, with White later adding that Stephen's revenge was "psychotic."

"The work this man had to go through to just hold a bomb for eight years…so much work," Van Patten continued. "That just went beyond my expectations of how manipulative he actually was. I really couldn’t believe that. I was also shocked, and I’m so curious, what would be in Meaghan’s head for a third season and what the rest of that wedding would look like."

When asked about his hopes for Stephen's future, White said, "I wonder if it would be cool to see Stephen completely stuck with nowhere to run to, nowhere to go. I don’t even know what that means, like no method of manipulating his way out of something. And then also, Meaghan said that there was an idea of a threesome with Wrigley and if that came up, I wouldn’t push against it. But we’ll see, fingers crossed."

Is season 3 the final season of 'Tell Me Lies?'

It’s yet to be confirmed whether Tell Me Lies season 3 is the final season. It very well might be, though. Star Tom Ellis, who is married to the series creator, has said that he thinks the forthcoming episodes are supposed to be the last. When Entertainment Tonight asked him in an August 2025 red-carpet interview if the show would end with season 3, he responded, "I think so."

"I think Meaghan has written it to be the last season, for sure," the British actor added.

Of course, nothing is confirmed, but Lucy herself, Grace Van Patten, has also spoken about her high hopes for the season, seemingly teasing how satisfying the finale is. "I'm so curious to hear what people think—and I'm obsessed with the ending. I'm really excited for the reactions to that," she told PEOPLE in a November 2025 interview.

Hulu could always renew the show for more based on its viewership, but Lucy and Stephen's story might wrap up this season. We'll have to wait and see!