Update (March 16th, 2021): BBC America has announced on Tuesday that Killing Eve will end its run with its upcoming season 4. After the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the production, the show’s eight-episode final season is now set to start filming in the U.K. and across Europe early this summer, with a release date sometime in 2022.
Though the thrilling cat-and-mouse game between Sandra Oh’s Eve Polastri and Jodie Comer’s Villanelle will be concluding soon, Killing Eve producers AMC Networks and Sid Gentle Films Ltd are currently in the process of developing spinoffs to further expand the rich universe that the critically acclaimed series has built.
Original Story (June 2nd, 2020): Last Sunday’s season 3 finale of Killing Eve left fans with a number of burning questions, and while they won’t get the answers right away, things will definitely get clearer when the spy thriller returns for season 4 sometime in 2021.
The BBC America series, starring Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri and Jodie Comer as Villanelle, was renewed for a fourth season in January ― three months before its third season kicked off. Though production on the new season is slated to begin in the summer, changes to the schedule are expected to be made as the world remains on pause due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly following the season 3 finale, executive producer Sally Woodward Gentle said that they’re still hopeful that season 4 could premiere in 2021 despite the challenges posed by the global health crisis.
“We haven’t taken our foot off the pedal. The writers are in the room now. We should have three episodes written really shortly,” Gentle shared. “We’re working to the schedule that we had before, and we will amend it as appropriate when we get closer to the date when we would start filming. We’re not going to do anything without people being entirely safe, and we don’t really want to compromise the vision for the show, either. So I can absolutely see a way that we could on air in 2021.”
While major plot details about season 4 are being kept under wraps, Gentle and her fellow executive producer Suzanne Heathcote teased what fans can expect from Eve and Villanelle from the new season.
Gentle ended her interview with Entertainment suggesting that Eve will finally embrace the darkness within her next season. “What do you do when you have to acknowledge to yourself that there’s a darkness that you can’t push down anymore?” the exec producer said when asked what question should viewers be thinking about as they await season 4. “And that’s very much an Eve thing.”
For Villanelle, meanwhile, Heathcote implied that the character will spend the early part of season 4 figuring out what she is now that she’s no longer a killer. “She always did it for money, or for material wealth, but she got a thrill out of it,” Heathcote told TVLine of why Villanelle used to murder people. “And suddenly, the desire to do it has left her. And when that’s the one thing that people think is the only useful thing about you, it’s like, what does that leave her with? So who knows what happens in season 4, whether she regains that thrill again? Maybe she does, or maybe she goes on a whole new journey.”
As for Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw), it’s likely that fans are going to see her in season 4 dealing with the consequences of killing Paul Bradwell (Steve Pemberton) in the season 3 finale. “I don’t believe Carolyn ever killed anyone,” Shaw told harpersbazaar.com. “I was very disturbed by it, because I really didn’t think of Carolyn as a killer. I hope the audience didn’t either.”
Also, it looks like the investigation into the death of Kenny Stowton (Sean Delaney) will continue in season 4 ― that is despite Konstantin’s claims that Carolyn’s son accidentally fell off the roof. “I wouldn’t know if I’d definitely believe Konstantin,” Heathcote told TVLine. “I think Konstantin will say whatever he needs to say to save his skin. I have a very specific opinion, and I don’t want to dictate a definite answer, but I would say that’s an opaque one there. The ‘did he/didn’t he’ is definitely not answered.”