Netflix Loses Fan-Favorite Comedy Series After 3 Seasons

Netflix will be losing a fan favorite! The Channel 4 comedy Derry Girls, currently streaming exclusively in North America on Netflix, will be coming to an end per an announcement shared from the series’ showrunner. In a statement posted to Twitter on Thursday, creator Lisa McGee revealed that the highly-anticipated upcoming third season will be the show’s last. The coming-of-age comedy centered on a Northern Irish family through the eyes of its 16-year-old daughter Erin Quinn (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) against the backdrop of The Troubles in the 1990s was a critical darling with the series pulling in 100% freshness for its first season and 97% for its sophomore run on Rotten Tomatoes. 

“It was always the plan to say goodbye after three [seasons],” McGee said. “Derry Girls is a coming of age story following five ridiculous teenagers as they slowly… very slowly… start to become adults, while around them the place they call home starts to change too and Northern Ireland enters a new more hopeful phase — which was a small, magical window of time.” The creator went on to state how the show was a “love letter” to the place she came from and those that shaped her. “Derry Girls is a love letter to the place I come from and the people who shaped me. It has been an honor to write it and I will be forever proud of everything it’s achieved,” she wrote.

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McGee went on to thanks the show’s producer Hat Trick and Channel 4, teasing the possibility of her characters returning in another way down the line. “Who knows if Erin, Clare, Orla, Michelle and James will return in some other guise someday, but for now this is it for us and we’re excited to start filming this [season] with our incredible cast and crew to hopefully take our loyal fans on one last adventure,” she concluded.

This past August, series star Siobhan McSweeney, who plays Sister Michael, offered an update on the half-hour sitcom’s production schedule, stating in an interview with the Radio Times that the cast and crew are “hoping to do it this year” but things haven’t been so easy. “It’s a scheduling nightmare, as you can imagine. Lisa doesn’t want to compromise on quality, obviously, but I think we’re all very impatient to get it done for very obvious reasons,” McSweeney said. The update echoes similar details to what series star Nicola Coughlan shared earlier this year. However, she admitted at the time of confirming Season 3 would start filming this year despite the pandemic pushing back filming “several times.” 

The show, which premiered on Channel 4 in 2018 and made its foray onto the streaming giant in 2019 for residents outside the United Kingdom, has become an international phenomenon, becoming the most binge-worthy series in the world. While not much is known surrounding the third season, Coughlan told the Irish website her.ie that McGee talked her through the storylines, and Season 3 promises to be “brilliant,” which also “doesn’t surprise” her much. “She’s just incredible — but it made me want to do it right now.”

Derry Girls Season 1 and Season 2 are currently streaming on Netflix in the U.S. and Canada — sorry, U.K. fans, though you can all still watch it on Channel 4. For more on all your favorite streaming shows, keep it locked to PopCulture.com for the latest.