The Bear has reportedly been renewed for a fourth season.
According to multiple outlets, a fourth installment of the Emmy-winning series has been quietly greenlit by FX as it continues to film season 3 in Chicago. Sources told Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter that both seasons will film back to back.
The quick turnaround is reportedly in an effort to keep the show on its annual release target as well as allow the cast and crew the opportunity for more feature work. Series stars Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri have particularly been in demand for big-screen opportunities as of late, with Allen, 33, starring in 2023’s critically acclaimed The Iron Claw. Edebiri, meanwhile, appeared in the comedy Bottoms and lent her voice to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Clone High and Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse. Her animated feature Inside Out 2 is set to hit theaters later this year.
The Bear’s creator, Christopher Storer, who previously penned a deal with FX Productions, also has several projects lined up.
Rumors began to swirl earlier this week that The Bear was filming additional episodes for season 3 after multiple Chicago outlets reported potential plans to end the series. However, sources told Deadline that season 5 remains a possibility.
Us Weekly has reached out to FX for comment.
The Bear, which premiered in June 2022, follows Carmy (White), a chef who returns to Chicago to run his older brother, Mikey’s (Jon Bernthal) restaurant following his death. Season 2 saw Carmy pair up with Sydney (Edebiri) as they attempted to open their own eatery from the ground up in only 12 weeks. Hulu and FX renewed the series for a third season in November 2023, just four months after season 2 aired.
“The Bear, which wowed audiences in its first season only to achieve even greater heights in season two, has become a cultural phenomenon,” the president of FX Entertainment Nick Grad announced in press release at the time. “We and our partners at Hulu join fans in looking forward to the next chapter in the story of The Bear.”
Production on season 3 kicked off in February, with all 10 episodes set to release in June. Season 3 follows a stellar award season for the show, which nabbed a total of 10 Emmys including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for White and Edebiri, respectively. Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who portrays Richie, received a win for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. The show also racked up three Golden Globes, three SAG Awards and four Critics Choice Awards.
While speaking to Variety in June 2023, White teased what viewers can expect from his character’s season 3 story line after his anxiety finally getting the best of him at the end of season 2.
“The way that Carmy is talking at the end of season 2 — if we get to do a season 3 — I have to assume he’ll be operating from this sort of loss,” he told the outlet. “He extended himself, he f—ked everything up by extending himself, and he can’t do it again. That’s where he’s at.”
Cooking, however, will continue to be front and center: “For the second season, so much of it was about putting the restaurant together, so there wasn’t that much cooking,” he said. “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.”