The OA Season 3: Everything we know
NetflixThe OA was cruelly cut short two seasons into its run. Will Season 3 of the mind-bending Netflix series ever happen?
Created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, The OA was unlike any Netflix series before or since. Unfortunately, the mystery-drama’s trippy storytelling sensibilities didn’t translate to big viewership numbers and Netflix canceled it in 2019.
Netflix axing The OA hit the show’s passionate fanbase hard – not least because Season 2 ended on a massive cliffhanger. Indeed, fans are still lobbying Netflix to bring back Marling and Batmanglij to complete what’s left of their original, five-season roadmap.
So, have The OA’s devotees succeeded in making a revival series a reality? Here’s what we know about The OA Season 3.
Is The OA Season 3 happening?
Netflix is not moving forward with The OA Season 3 as of this writing. There’s no indication that another platform will pick up the show, either.
Interestingly, Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij recently revealed that an OA movie – which would’ve replaced Seasons 3-5 – nearly went ahead. The pair turned down Netflix’s offer to make the film, however, as they felt this wasn’t the right way to conclude The OA’s story.
“[Netflix] did try to get us to wrap it up with a movie and we said no,” Batmanglij told The Hollywood Reporter. “So I didn’t feel burnt because of [the cancelation]; I felt more puzzled. If you’re Netflix, why don’t you just finish it with more than just a wrap-up movie? Why don’t you finish it with a third season?
“It would force us to bring the three [remaining] seasons into one and close it up. And then you could outsource it to Max or Hulu or wherever. You can do so much with it if it’s finished.”
In the same interview, both Marling and Batmanglij expressed hope that The OA Season 3 will see the light of day eventually. “Twin Peaks came back after a long time,” Marling observed. “We just need the conditions and the circumstances to be right. Dormant seeds in the desert do bloom, so who knows?”
NetflixWas there a The OA Season 3 plot?
Netflix never released a plot synopsis for The OA Season 3. What’s more, Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij remain tight-lipped regarding their unrealized plans for the show’s remaining seasons.
Even so, we can make an educated guess on where Season 3 – billed as “Part 3” before its cancellation – was going to take Prairie Johnson/The OA’s journey next. Specifically, the third season presumably would’ve addressed Season 2’s cliffhanger ending, which shifts the action to another dimension where The OA is a TV show.
It was a mind-bogglingly meta twist, fully in keeping with The OA’s reputation for throwing curveballs at its audience. And according to star Jason Isaacs, the way Marling and Batmanglij intended to pay said twist off would’ve been even wilder.
“When [Marling and Batmanglij] told me the end of Season 2, I went, ‘Wait, guys, are you actually sure?’ That sounds nuts to me. What can you possibly do afterwards?'” Isaacs told Collider in 2019. “So, they sat me down and told me, and 15 minutes later, my jaw was hanging open.”
The OA Season 3 cast – Who was going to star?
Cast members expected to return for The OA’s third season before it was cancelled included:
- Brit Marling as Prairie Johnson/The OA/ Nina Azarova
- Emory Cohen as Homer Roberts
- Scott Wilson as Abel Johnson
- Phyllis Smith as Betty “BBA” Broderick-Allen
- Alice Krige as Nancy Johnson
- Patrick Gibson as Steve Winchell
- Brendan Meyer as Jesse Mills
- Brandon Perea as Alfonso “French” Sosa
- Ian Alexander as Buck Vu and Michelle Vu
- Jason Isaacs as Hunter Aloysius “Hap” Percy/Dr. Percy
- Kingsley Ben-Adir as Karim Washington
- Will Brill as Scott Brown
- Sharon Van Etten as Rachel DeGrasso
- Paz Vega as Renata Duarte
- Chloë Levine as Angie
As established by the Season 2 cliffhanger, several cast members (including Marling, Isaacs, and Gibson) would’ve portrayed fictionalized versions of themselves, as well. In a 2019 interview with Collider, Isaacs identified this as potentially the most difficult part of Season 3, had it gone ahead.
“My head was spinning with what the hell was going to happen, how I was going to do it, and what it was,” he recalled. “And then, of course, it’s not myself [in The OA Season 2’s final scene]. It’s Hap inside of some version of Jason Isaacs, in a universe that they were going to create, so there was all kinds of fantastic potential there for that.”
Is there a trailer for The OA Season 3?
No, Netflix never released a trailer for The OA Season 3. This is hardly surprising, as the show was axed before any footage was filmed for its third batch of episodes.
It’s worth bearing this in mind whenever a supposedly “official” trailer for the third season crops up on YouTube – these are fanmade, no matter how convincing they seem. So, until an OA revival is greenlit, you’ll have to make do with the Season 2 trailer, which you check out below: