Why “Big Little Lies” author Liane Moriarty won’t be involved in show’s third season: ‘Need to just enjoy it’

Shelby StivaleMon, September 7, 2026 at 12:30 PM UTC

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(From left) Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Laura DernCredit: HBOKey Points -

Liane Moriarty explained her decision to take a step back from Big Little Lies season 3.

The author published a sequel to the 2014 novel on Aug. 25.

Big Little Truths will serve as the basis for the HBO show’s third season.

Liane Moriarty plans to enjoy Big Little Liesseason 3 the same way as the rest of us.

The author — who just published her highly anticipated sequel to the 2014 novel, Big Little Lies — told The Hollywood Reporterthat she plans to separate herself from any more adaptations of her work.

“I think what I’ve learned with my adaptations is that if I ever join meetings or anything, in the beginning I think okay we can make changes,” she explained in an interview published on Aug. 25. “I know it’s a different medium and I’m feeling all collaborative and enjoying the teamwork. But then we go around a little bit and there’ll be an issue and I think, well you should have just left it the same as the book because I worked this all out before.”

The writer added, “Like, if you stick to the book it’ll all work out. But really, you shouldn’t do that! So I need to just enjoy it as any other viewer.”

This is exactly what happened with her new book. Moriarty initially wasn’t planning on writing Big Little Truths, also published on Aug. 25. But when she decided to go forth with the sequel, Moriarty decided to give HBO a heads-up.

“I said to them, ‘I’m going to write this, but I don’t want to hear your thoughts, I’ll just give [the manuscript] to you and you can do what you want with it,’” she recalled. “They were really good about that, except they were just saying, ‘Hurry up, hurry up, the children [actors] are getting older,’ and that sort of thing.”

Nicole Kidman, Liane Moriarty, and Reese Witherspoon in 2017Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

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Moriarty was forced to break her own rules throughout the process.

“I normally never let my editors see anything along the way. But this time I let them see because I wasn’t doing it fast enough,” she explained. “But I asked for no feedback. I didn’t want to hear anything about, ‘Well that wouldn’t work for us.’”

Big Little Truths offers a time jump from the first novel, which explains the length of time between books. The HBO show will follow the same path. The first season, which premiered in 2017, starred Reese Witherspoon (Madeline), Shailene Woodley (Jane), Zoë Kravitz (Bonnie), Nicole Kidman (Celeste) and Laura Dern (Renata). When the show returned for a second season in 2019, Meryl Streep was introduced as Celeste’s mother-in-law, Mary Louise.

Both Witherspoon and Kidman have been vocal about planning to return for the third season. It appears Streep might also make an appearance. In a surprising move, Moriarty brought Mary Louise — who was not present in the book, Big Little Lies — back into the fold for Big Little Truths.

“I don’t think I would have done that if I hadn’t come up with that character [for the show] myself,” she told THR. “The characters have to feel like they belong to me.”

Despite the author’s hands-off approach to the show, the new novel will serve as the basis for season 3. That being said, Moriarty had to get totally out of the mindset of the show when it came to writing Big Little Truths.

“I was very aware that it’s been a long time since people have read the first book, and that many of them have seen the show. In their minds they’d have sort of confused the worlds. I myself have that issue,” Moriarty explained. “I tried not to get too clever. I had no problem ignoring the plot of the show.”

on Entertainment Weekly

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