After the tragic passing of Big Little Lies’ creator and director Jean-Marc Valée (C.R.A.Z.Y., Dallas Buyers Club) last year, there is some doubt that there will be a third season of the HBO series. Stars of the series Zoë Kravitz (Divergent, X-Men: First Class) and Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde, Walk the Line) both shared their thoughts on both the passing of Valée and moving forward with a third season without him.
“I don’t think it is [happening],” Kravitz revealed in an interview with GQ. “We talked about doing a Season 3 a lot and unfortunately Jean-Marc Vallée, our incredible director, passed away this last year which was heartbreaking. And I just can’t imagine going on without him. He really was the visionary for that show. So, unfortunately, it’s done.”
Via Screen Rant, Witherspoon gave her own statement on the show and Valée’s death:
“We’re always talking and texting. But [director] Jean-Marc Vallée’s passing was really hard on us. He was our collaborator. He was our friend. He was our brother. So much of that series was born of his imagination and his creativity, so it is hard to imagine a future without him. But there is certainly a deep desire for all of us to connect and create those characters again.”
According to ComicBook, a statement from Valée’s sons confirmed that he passed away due to a heart attack. The statement was released earlier this year.
“Jean-Marc Vallée was a brilliant, fiercely dedicated filmmaker, a truly phenomenal talent who infused every scene with a deeply visceral, emotional truth,” HBO said in a statement following the director’s death, via ComicBook. “He was also a hugely caring man who invested his whole self alongside every actor he directed.”
Big Little Lies is a dark comedy based on the Liane Moriarty (Nine Perfect Strangers) novel going by the same name. According to Deadline, HBO originally introduced the series as miniseries but due to its triumph, a second season was ordered. In this series, the outwardly-perfect lives of upper-class mothers of students at a prestigious elementary school unfold to the point of murder when a single mother moves to their eccentric California beach town, according to ComicBook.
Along with Kravitz and Witherspoon, other stars of Big Little Lies include Nicole Kidman (The Others, Moulin Rouge!), Meryl Streep (Mamma Mia, The Devil Wears Prada), Laura Dern (Jurassic Park, Marriage Story), Shailene Woodley (Secret Life of the American Teenager, Divergent), James Tupper (Joe Dirt, Mr. Popper’s Penguins), Iain Armitage (Young Sheldon, Scoob!), Kathryn Newton (Freaky, Pokémon Detective Pikachu), Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood, The Legend of Tarzan), Adam Scott (Step Brothers, Parks and Recreation), and Jeffrey Nordling (24, I’m Dying Up Here).