Nicole Kidman Dashes ‘Big Little Lies’ Fans’ Hope of Third Season

It doesn’t look good for a third season of Big Little Lies. Series star Nicole Kidman said scheduling would be a tough obstacle to overcome, considering the all-star cast members involved.

“I think it would be hard to get the whole group together,” she told Variety. “But we would love to do it.”

“The whole group” consists of A-listers like Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Zoe Kravitz, Shailene Woodley and — for season 2 — Meryl Streep.

Kidman also revealed to Variety that Streep signed on to the HBO’s Emmy-winning drama without ever seeing a script. “She hadn’t even read it,” Kidman said. “That’s how much she wanted to support us.”

She said she and Witherspoon, who produced the limited series together, received an email from Streep the night of the Golden Globes, when Big Little Lies won best TV limited series. “She goes, ‘I suppose now I have to join you.’ And we were like, ‘What?’ The two of us were just shocked,” Kidman said.

In season 2, Streep plays Kidman’s character, Celeste Wright’s mother-in-law, Mary Louise Wright — so the two actresses stare several scenes, something even Kidman was nervous about.

“I was terrified,” Kidman said. “You’re acting opposite the great one. I get nervous anyway — but to be opposite her and not want her to think, ‘Who is this amateur?’ And also, we want to deliver a series for her that she’s great in. Reese and I were like, ‘We want this for her and for the other women.’ They have much stronger roles in the second one.”

Big Little Lies season 2 will consist of seven episodes, and will see Jane (Woodley) trying to process Perry’s (Alexander Skarsgard) death after the realization that he was her rapist. Renata (Dern) will deal with some marital problems while Bonnie (Kravitz) will wrestle with the ramifications of her actions in season 1.

Many fans wondered if Skarsgard will appear in season 2, perhaps in flashbacks, after he was spotted in photos on set.

“I was on set, yes. I can’t disclose what I did on set,” the actor admitted to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. “Maybe, I was acting. I might have been just moral support. I might have just made coffee for the ladies. I might have helped Meryl Streep with her acting… Not help, but just give her little pointers, fine tune it a bit.”

Big Little Lies is expected to return to HBO in 2019.