Only Murders In The Building Season 3 Will Put Martin Short's Character Back In The Spotlight [Exclusive]
This article includes spoilers for the season 2 finale of "Only Murders in the Building."
"Only Murders in the Building" just ended its second season on a wacky high note, solving one murder (in the most hilariously complex way possible) and leaving neighbors and amateur sleuths Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) smack-dab in the middle of another. The season 3 set-up already looks promising. In the finale's final scene, we see that Mabel, Charles, and Oliver have reunited for the theatrical debut of Oliver's new play, headlined by none other than Paul Rudd's Ben Glenroy. Only, before the final curtain can fall, Ben has collapsed to the stage, dead.
/Film's Josh Spiegel recently spoke with "Only Murders in the Building" co-creator John Hoffman and gleaned some important information about season 3, which has already been greenlit. Namely, Hoffman says that the next season will revolve more around Oliver's world than the previous two. The writer and executive producer explained that so far, each season has dived deeper into the backstories of one of the three members of the podcasting trio, and the next one will be no exception.
"In season 1, we had a close connection with Mabel's emotional storyline with Tim Kono," Hoffman pointed out, "And in the second season, we had Charles and the history with his father and the history with the Arconia, all of the mystery around that." He says that the writers' room is eager to "angle towards Oliver Putnam and the world of theatrics, and his wishes and dreams to regain a reputation after his debacle with 'Splash!'"
Oliver will be in the limelight
In case you've forgotten, Oliver was a legendary and prolific theater director until 2005, when his reputation was damaged by a disastrous big-budget version of the Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah mermaid rom-com from 1984. Audiences have only heard mentions of Putnam's time working on "Splash!" but from what he said about it way back in the third episode, it sounds like a "Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark"-level mess. Over budget and injury-laden, "Splash!" was a mess that ultimately cost Oliver's son his college fund, which makes the fact that Oliver's big comeback is now marred with murder genuinely sad. The poor guy can't catch a break!
Hopefully, season 3 will show us more of what "Splash!" was actually like, and give us a glimpse of what Oliver looks like when he has his director's hat on. Short is laugh-out-loud funny in this role, but the ensemble cast means he's not always in the spotlight. Next season, though, it sounds like that'll change. According to Hoffman, the season 3 writers' room is already open and five weeks into story planning, so they've "got a pretty good map for all 10 [episodes]." In fact, Hoffman says planning for the new season will be as much about cutting back as it is fleshing out, since, as he puts it, "we have so much that we want to fulfill."
Even though "Only Murders in the Building" just ended and there's no release date for season 3 in sight, we're already looking forward to more hijinks from the Arconia crew. With Oliver taking center stage and a Paul Rudd-centric murder, season 3 already sounds like it'll be a showstopper.