Santa Clarita Diet Season 4: Will It Ever Happen?

If Netflix had renewed all the shows they abruptly canceled due to fan campaigns for their return, we would be paying a lot more for the streaming service than we already are. The likes of "Mindhunter," "The OA," "Sense 8," and (whisper it now) "Warrior Nun" all faced the chop, canceled during what many fans considered their prime. While some might have received a final send-off here and there, one show that didn't get any closure was the wonderfully funny and occasionally macabre comedy series, "The Santa Clarita Diet," created by Victor Fresco. Featuring an incredible cast, the show followed a couple of happily married realtors (Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant) whose world turns incredibly dark and meaty when, after a questionable batch of clams, Sheila Hammond (Barrymore) transforms into a bloodthirsty but still totally sentient zombie.

From there, the happy family must come together to keep Sheila's recent appetite shift a secret, with Joel Hammond (Olyphant) sometimes burying their family problems when necessary. While he's dusting off his shovel, their daughter, Abby (Liv Hewson), and her school pal, Eric (Skyler Gisondo), try to reverse whatever unholy ailment has befallen Sheila to ensure she's not so bitey anymore. Running for three seasons and blessed with supporting stars like Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, and Joel McHale, it seemed Netflix didn't find enough meat on the bone to continue "Santa Clarita Diet," leading to its abrupt cancellation. So what happened, and is there any chance for the show to bite back with a fourth season?

Suffering one of the worst kinds of exits for a show, "Santa Clarita Diet" was brought to a close after its final season ended on a cliffhanger. Season 3 dove deep into the lore of the issue that Sheila had been facing for the past seasons, which saw encounters with Serbian knights sworn to vanquish zombies, as well as the scuttling little creature that comes with zombification, which the undead realtor aptly called Mr. Ball Legs. By the final episode, the Hammonds are a very happy family until the unholy creature crawls its way into Joel's ear and latches onto his brain, giving his beloved wife no choice but to bite her hubby and turn him into a monster just like her.

As far as season-ending episodes go, this one can be found under "B" for "Bonkers," which makes it all the more frustrating that we never got an answer to what really happened to Joel. Was he now a meat puppet for Mr. Ball Legs, who Sheila looked upon as a pet of sorts, or had her closely timed bite been enough to bring Joel back from the brink and not a primitive version of himself? Well, unfortunately, those answers never saw the light of another chapter because almost a month after the season aired, Netflix broke the news that they were giving up on "Santa Clarita Diet" for good. The fan favorite series would succumb to the streaming service's brutal rule of three that had befallen so many other beloved shows up to this point.

As revealed by Deadline following the show's cancellation, "Santa Clarita Diet" was brought to an end after being subjected to the streamers' "cost-plus" model. This method involved Netflix paying upfront for the show's production costs, along with a premium of 30% of those costs. This deal also includes bumps and bonuses for seasons that become more popular after each season. Operating under this rule, the first season of the show was the least expensive, increasing in cost by season 2, with production costs rising from thousands to millions for season 3 to compensate for the show and its cast. With this in mind, it's the matter that regardless of how popular "Santa Clarita Diet" may have been, the budget to keep it going just wasn't on Netflix's to-do list, meaning that a fourth season was out of the question.

Speaking about this decision process, Deadline was told by Netflix's head of original content, Cindy Holland, "When we're investing, we decide how much to invest based on the audience that will show up. If the audience doesn't show up, we think about the reason to continue to invest in something that doesn't do as well as we had hoped. Critical acclaim is important too." What's worth noting is that "Santa Clarita Diet" checked both these boxes, but it still wasn't enough from the perspective of the big red N. "But we're really about trying to stretch our investment dollars as far as we can and make good on our investors' money — it's theirs, not ours."

Netflix might've called it a day on "Santa Clarita Diet," but that didn't stop its cast from speaking out about the show coming to an end, and the love they had for the show that was all kinds of crazy in the funnest ways. In a statement from Drew Barrymore obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, the star said, "Of all of the characters I've ever been, Sheila Hammond is one of my favorites. She and Joel were an amazing couple who had shared goals." Praising the rest of the talent involved, Barrymore added, "And I am lucky to have worked alongside Tim Olyphant. It was an honor to get to do something so delightful. Sheila lives forever in me. And I am grateful to Victor Fresco, who created a world so unique."

Timothy Olyphant's reaction to the show suggested the star was suffering from a strong case of denial. "I loved working on this show. I'm going to continue coming in and doing scenes. If they don't want to film it, that's up to them," he joked (hopefully).

It's a shame that "Santa Clarita Diet" didn't get the kind of exit it deserved, particularly given the popularity it was earning and the critical consensus praising how much of a genuine laugh-fest Fresco had managed to conjure up. But even if the show had ended, that's not to say the showrunner hasn't got an idea for a fourth chapter all figured out.

Following its cancellation, Fresco told LADBible about his plans for season 4 following the mishap with Mr. Ball Legs and what the show could've looked like with two zombies at the head of the Hammond household. "We thought it would be fun to do a season with Joel and Sheila in the same boat—what that would look like. I feel like this would be better for us and better for our fans, too."

While it's a bold call to make, this little mix-up would undoubtedly add a fun spin to an already entertaining story and could've provided more opportunity for Timothy Olyphant to showcase the comedic talent his earlier work hadn't fully revealed. After shows like "Justified" and "Deadwood," Olyphant became the calm and courageous hero who never broke a sweat, whereas "Santa Clarita Diet" depicted him as a father and husband struggling to dispose of bodies, converse with severed heads, and still love his monstrous wife just the same.

Fresco explained, "Joel could have a different attitude [to Sheila], we would want him to be a little bit different in how he approaches things. It will be interesting to see him with that unleashed and what he turns into. So not just who he kills and how he kills, but what kind of person he becomes." Sounds great, right? A story that fans would no doubt be interested in seeing? Well, given that it's been almost six years since the show ended, the chances of the cast returning seem as likely as Sheila eating vegetables with her meals.

Given how things ended for Fresco's flesh-favoring estate agents, it seems clear that the stars of season 4 would undoubtedly be the Hammond family and their plucky pal from next door, Eric. Unfortunately, given the length of time it's been since we last saw them and the current schedule of some of the stars, the chances of them getting back together seem unlikely.

While Drew Barrymore doesn't have much teed up in terms of film or acting work on television, she is instead still hosting her talk show, "The Drew Barrymore Show," which has been running since 2020 and had a sixth season greenlit last year. As for Timothy Olyphant, while he was last seen reprising one beloved role as Raylen Givens in "Justified: Primeval" (which teased a follow-up of its own), he's also set to face off against a horror from outer space via "Alien: Earth" which is touching down on Hulu and FX on August 12.

As for the younger stars of "Santa Clarita Diet," Liv Hewson is currently lost in the woods with the rest of the "Yellowjackets" as the teen version of Vanessa Palmer. Skyler Gisondo also has a packed schedule, taking on the perfectly matched role of Jimmy Olsen in James Gunn's "Superman." All in all, as much as we'd like to see the return of "Santa Clarita Diet" to finish off their story, the truth is the stars of the show simply have too much on their plate right now.