The least surprising news in Hollywood? The fact that *The Bear—*Christopher Storer’s supremely chaotic, incredibly moving comedy-drama, which delivered two of the best episodes of television in recent memory (the Christmas flashback “Fishes” and the Richie-centric “Forks”) back-to-back last season—will be returning for a third installment. Still, we’re relieved to know that Carmy will eventually make it out of that walk-in fridge that he became trapped in as his new restaurant soft opened, and, presumably, be forced to deal with the consequences of his actions.
The confirmation came from the show’s network, FX/Hulu, on November 6, 2023, and on February 9, 2024, it was revealed that the series would be back in June 2024. It’s safe to assume that the main cast—Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Abby Elliott, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, and Matty Matheson—will all be back as The Bear opens to the public, raising yet more questions about kitchen power dynamics, profit sharing, and whether or not Carmy and Sydney will ever actually get together or if they are, in fact, as the show’s cast and creators keep telling us, just friends. We hear you, writers, but that scene between the pair under the table in the ninth episode, “Omelette,” had more sexual tension than any other in the show’s entire run. Just sayin’.
I also have other questions: once Carmy emerges from the walk-in, will he continue to spiral and begin working even more obsessively than he has in the past? Or, did his blowout with Richie help him see the error of his ways? Will Carm reconcile with Claire and, more importantly, will Claire (as played by the wonderful Molly Gordon) finally be given the space to be a fully realised character beyond simply serving as an idealized love interest? And what about Richie’s future as the now meticulous and sharply dressed front of house manager; Syd’s as the restaurant’s rising culinary star; and Natalie’s as its project manager, especially as she prepares to give birth? Oh, and after her heartbreaking cameo in the Season 2 finale, will we see more of the force of nature that is Jamie Lee Curtis’s Donna Berzatto? I certainly hope so—though I’m not sure her kids could handle that.
While White said that he had not yet read any of the Season 3 scripts, when speaking to Variety in December 2023, he admitted that preparations for the next installment would begin soon. “I do know in January I’m going to spend a fair amount of time getting together with some chefs,” he said. “There’ll be a menu set, I believe, that’s going to be for the restaurant in the third season. And I know that I’m going to start putting together that menu with different chefs. We all did a lot of preparation before the first season. I went to culinary school and I spent a lot of time in restaurants. And then, for the second season, so much of it was about putting the restaurant together, so there wasn’t that much cooking. But now, in the third season, I think we’re going to go back to that functioning kitchen atmosphere that we had in the first.” Bring it on.