‘Barry’ Season 3 Premiere Date Announced on HBO After Lengthy Hiatus

After three years off the air, HBO’s award-winning show Barry is finally returning to TV. The third season of the Bill Hader-led series premieres Sunday, April 24, on HBO and HBO Max, the network announced Tuesday, and will consist of eight episodes. Also returning for Season 3 are Hader’s co-stars Henry Winkler, Stephen Root, Sarah Goldberg, Anthony Carrigan and Sarah Burns.

“Season 3, more than anything, shows the ramifications of [Barry’s violence in Season 2],” Hader teased during HBO’s TCA presentation Tuesday. “Even more bad things happen. Mostly bad.” He continued of the journey awaiting Barry, “I think this season, I don’t think he knew the extent that he’s hurt people, and I think that’s what he’s kind of learning.”

Fans of the dark comedy will have gone three years without a new season by the time Barry returns, as Hader recalls being about two weeks away from shooting Season 3 in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. While the cast and crew thought it would be a matter of weeks before they could get back to production, obviously things didn’t go as they initially thought. 

During the filming hiatus, Hader said he and the other writers decided to move on to writing Season 4, giving the third season a “pretty extensive rewrite” in the process. The official description for Season 3 reads, “Desperate to leave his violent past behind in favor of his newfound passion, Barry (Hader) is attempting to untangle himself from the world of contract killing and fully immerse himself in acting. But getting out is messy.”

“While Barry has eliminated many of the external factors that pushed him towards violence, he soon discovers they weren’t the only forces at play,” the description continues. “What is it about his own psyche that led him to become a killer in the first place? Season three finds Barry and the other characters trying to make the right choice.”

It wasn’t easy taking such an abrupt and lengthy break from Barry, but Goldberg teased that there are plenty of “big ideas” executed in the new season that kept her going during the more uncertain times of lockdown. Carrigan agreed, “Just knowing that we were gonna be able to come back was a huge thing that kind of kept me going.” Barry Season 3 premieres Sunday, April 24 on HBO and HBO Max.