HBO Renews Hit Dark Comedy Series for Season 4

HBO has renewed Bill Hader's dark comedy series Barry for Season 4 at HBO and HBO Max. Variety confirmed Thursday that the network officially greenlit the hit series for an eight-episode fourth season to be directed by Hader, who co-created Barry alongside Alec Blerg. Barry Season 4 will begin production in Los Angeles in June. A potential premiere date has not been announced for the season, which was renewed just four weeks into the hit series' third season.

Confirming the renewal news, Amy Gravitt, executive vice president of HBO Programming, said in a statement, "Bill, Alec and the entire cast and crew delivered an exquisite third season of Barry." Gravitt went on to call Season 3 a masterful blend of laughs and suspense," before going on to share, "I'm so happy to announce that we are picking up the fourth season."

The early renewal doesn't come as much of a surprise. Although just a handful of episodes into its third outing, Barry Season 3 already has the much-coveted 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That score was aggregated from 66 critic reviews, with the Los Angeles Times' Lorraine Ali writing that the half-hour comedy "is still one of television's best suspense-filled thrillers." Audience members, meanwhile, have given Barry's third outing an 89% fresh score. The series as a whole has a 99% critics rating and 90% audience score. Outside of just ratings, Barry has also seen plenty of success on the awards circuit, the show's first two seasons earning a total of thirty Emmy nominations with six wins.

Originally premiering in 2018, Barry stars Hader as a jaded hitman tired of his hollow life. He finds meaning in an acting class out in Los Angeles, and does his best to leave his old life behind and start acting full time. Naturally, this comes with a whole host of issues, from secrets he cannot share to the cops still on his trail from murders past.

In addition to Hader, Barry stars Henry Winkler as the earnest acting coach Jean Cousineau. Last year, Winkler won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on Barry, while Hader won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The show also won Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series. The series also stars Sarah Goldberg, who plays Sally Reed, Barry's classmate and girlfriend, Stephen Root, who plays Barry's handler, Monroe Fuches and Anthony Carrigan, who plays the erratic gang boss "NoHo Hank." The show is full of familiar faces, such as D'Arcy Carden and Kirby Howell-Baptiste of The Good Place. Barry Season 3 is currently airing on HBO Max.