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One year, multiple awards season wins, and a steamy, internet-breaking Calvin Klein underwear campaign later, FX’s The Bear finally has an official release date for its upcoming season. While speaking at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour on Feb. 9, FX chairman John Landgraf announced that The Bear Season 3 will drop sometime in June 2024, and that the series’ latest chapter promises to bring more cooking, personal drama, and surprise guest appearances to fans’ screens.
And if that wasn't enough, on Mar. 14, Deadline reported that the network also "quietly" renewed the beloved series for a fourth season and will film it back-to-back with Season 3. "Quietly" means that FX didn't release an official statement, but sources told Deadline about the not-so-unexpected renewal.
The drama series, which swept the Emmys and Golden Globes this year, will continue to follow Chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and the former employees of The Beef as they navigate opening their new restaurant – all while battling their own personal and professional issues.
As a refresher: When we left off in Season 2, the team managed to pull off the near-impossible feat of opening in only 12 weeks, but it was anything but smooth. For starters, Carmy accidentally locked himself in the walk-in fridge, promptly had a meltdown, and Sydney (Ayo Edibiri) had to rise to the challenge of pulling off the dinner service as head chef (while throwing up in the process). Ahead of The Bear’s Season 3 release, here’s everything we know (including the likelihood of a Carmy and Sydney romance).
Courtesy of FX
'The Bear' Season 3 Release Date and How to Watch
The FX-produced series will be streaming again on Hulu in June. Like for The Bear Season 1 and Season 2, Landgraf told reporters he had “no doubt” all episodes of Season 3 will drop at once on the release date. Watch this space for confirmation of the exact date!
“It’s anxiety-inducing to watch that show, and those aren’t the adjectives you associate with a hit TV show and Emmys,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “We made the decision that we’d drop the whole thing as a binge because [season one] has a really uplifting ending … and then we thought it would be a rotten thing to change it up with the audience [for season 2] .,, I have no doubt we’ll keep doing it.”
'The Bear' Season 4 Is Coming, Too
Season 4 is set to film right after season 3 wraps, Deadline notes. That could be because both White and Edebiri are "getting a ton of feature opportunities." A release date for Season 4 has not been released yet. The back-to-back filming approach is nothing new for FX, which also filmed the third and fourth seasons of Atlanta in the same way. The industry publication also notes that Season 5 of the show is still a possibility, though there hasn't been an announcement regarding that just yet.
‘The Bear’ Season 3 Filming Locations
Like in previous seasons of The Bear, the third season will be filming in the city of Chicago and in surrounding suburbs like Evanston, Illinois, and production started in late February, per Deadline. Eagle-eyed fans have already spotted flyers around the city for the show’s filming schedule under the alias “Kubelik,” and a Chicago-based casting company put out a call for extras in case you'd want your own "Yes, chef" moment.
The Bear Season 2 memorably explored the Chicago fine dining scene with restaurant cameos filmed at the Michelin-starred Kasama, Ever, and more, but Allen hinted at a return to the show’s roots for Season 3 in a December 2023 interview with Variety.
“For the second season, so much of it was about putting the restaurant together, so there wasn’t that much cooking,” White told the publication. “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.”
Courtesy of FX
‘The Bear’ Season 3 Cast
White, Ayo Edebiri, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach are officially confirmed to return, per the Season 3 press release, but it’s also expected that series favorites like Abby Elliott, Lionel Boyce, Edwin Lee Gibson, Matty Matheson, and Liza Colón-Zayas will be back. There’s also a chance that Carmy’s mom (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) will be making an appearance to unpack even more family trauma after secretly arriving at the restaurant, then leaving without telling Carmy or his sister, Natalie, at the end of Season 2.
Landgraft stayed mum on revealing any potential guest appearances at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, but White hinted at a lot of star power in Season 3 in a November 2023 interview with Deadline. White revealed that Sam Rockwell and John Turturro are his dream guest stars for the upcoming season, and that he hopes “we can get as many [guest stars] to come back for one day,” à la "Fishes," the Season 2 episode which featured stars like Sarah Paulson, John Mulaney, and Jon Bernthal.
Meanwhile, Swifties who enjoyed Richie's Taylor Swift arc are holding out hope for an appearance from the "Karma" singer in Season 3.
Courtesy of FX
‘The Bear’ Season 3 Plot Details
While The Bear Season 2 ended with the team pulling off a successful friends and family opening night, even in Carmy’s absence, things were far from celebratory. Carmy struggled with poor mental health amidst the opening of The Bear, even hallucinating that he saw his former abusive boss in attendance at the opening. When he got locked in his walk-in fridge on what should be the biggest night of his career, he lashed out at his girlfriend Claire (Molly Gordon) and Richie.
Meanwhile, forced to step in as head chef, Sydney threw up from the pressure of pulling off a successful night, and Marcus ended the season with several missed calls from his mom’s nurse, implying that she had died. On the flip side, Richie had a complete 180 character arc, ending Season 2 with a new sense of purpose after cleaning up his act (oh, and he wears suits now, as he pointedly told his coworkers).
Courtesy of FX
It’s likely that The Bear Season 3 will continue to focus on each character’s personal journeys, as well as how they come together as a team in the kitchen now that Marcus has perfected the art of making desserts in Copenhagen and Tina has gone to culinary school. It’s also likely that Season 3 will delve into Carmy’s inner demons, especially when it comes to his new relationship with Claire, his family, and his crippling self-doubt.
While fans have shipped Sydney and Carmy since Season 1, the actors had a disappointing update for viewers who were hoping that the pair would finally explore things romantically in Season 3.
Edibiri, who called the fan theories “frustrating," told The Hollywood Reporter in August 2023, “I don’t think they’re going to get what they want. I think it’s incredibly cool to have this dynamic onscreen that isn’t romantic, but that feels charged and sexy.”
Courtesy of FX
Only time will tell whether The Bear gets renewed for Season 4, but White told reporters backstage at the SAG Awards that despite everything Carmy is going through, he hopes that the show has an uplifting ending.
“I was flying to Chicago and I got dropped a little note on a napkin while I was on the plane. All it said on it was, ‘I hope Carmy gets a happy ending,’” he said, per Deadline. “I think that’s all I really hoped for. That he learns how to understand himself a little bit better and appreciates what he has and then finds some peace.”
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