Russian Doll Creator Has Disappointing Season 3 Update

Russian Doll has become a memorable part of Netflix’s original catalog, with the live-action series subverting expectations at practically every turn. Led by Natasha Lyonne and Charlie Barnett, Russian Doll even surprised fans when it returned for a second season, expanding even upon the show’s otherworldly, but character-driven lore. In recent years, there has been a debate about whether or not Russian Doll will get a third season — and it looks like series creator Leslye Headland is weighing in. While Headland acknowledged that Lyonne’s schedule with Peacock’s Poker Face might prevent Season 3 of Russian Doll from happening right away, she definitely thinks it’s possible for the show to return. 

“I don’t know,” Headland revealed in a recent interview with Collider. “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.”

“No, I think there is [a chance],” Headland added. “100%. Yeah, I definitely think there is. I just haven’t heard anything about it.”

What Would Russian Doll Season 3 Be About?

After Lyonne’s Nadia and Barnett’s Alan crossed paths with each other in a time loop in Season 1, and Nadia traveled back in time to explore her path in Season 2, there has been no telling exactly where Russian Doll could go next. In a 2023 interview with Deadline, Lyonne argued that any continuation of Russian Doll might end up being a bit unconventional by nature.

“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. And then you’re allowed to kind of make a movie about it whenever you want, on your own timeline,” Lyonne explained. “I’ve had a very weird path, and I’m very aware that this is a very special time for me. I’m very grateful that it’s finally here. So, I just want to learn to develop some self-respect around that and play like the big boys, which is to follow where my instinct and interest is leading me. My job is to keep my head down and focus on the work. That’s what I do. I work really hard, and I love what I do, and Poker Face is hard as hell. I’ve got to memorize 60 pages a week. You have all these brilliant actors coming in who want to do an incredible job. So, you have to help them find the key of the music that the tone of Rian Johnson is in, because if it’s a guest director or something, they want to do a good job. It’s almost like you’re also the mayor in a weird way.”

“And I love these jobs,” Lyonne continued. “But yeah, I think I just want to take a few years for me, now that I finally have them, to really say, what the hell do I want? I see other people have the self-confidence to do that, and I think for so many years, I was just going where it was warm and taking what I could get and being grateful to have a job at all. So, I’m trying to really get quiet and figure out what this new iteration means.”