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Barry is back. Henry Winkler has confirmed that shooting has begun on season 3 of the Emmy-winning HBO dark comedy series, which stars SNL alum Bill Hader as hitman-turned-actor Barry Berkman. 

Production on the next season of ‘Barry’ was delayed

Henry Winkler gesturing to Bill Hader during discussion about 'Barry'
Henry Winkler and Bill Hader | FilmMagic/FilmMagic for HBO

HBO renewed Barry for a third season way back in April 2019. Production was set to begin in March 2020. Then the pandemic hit. 

“Right when the lockdown happened in March we were a week away from shooting,” Hader said during an appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers in January 2021 (via YouTube). “The last time I was in a room with a lot of people was the table read for episodes 1 and 2 of season 3 and we were ready to go. And then it all got shut down. Season 3 is completely written and ready to go, and during this time we actually went and wrote Season 4, so we have both of those kind of done. We’re just waiting until we can start shooting again.”

HBO hasn’t officially given Barry Season 4 the green light, but it sounds like a renewal is likely.

“Typically, we don’t pick up things until they air but if I was betting on whether we would do more, I think that is a very safe bet,” Casey Bloys, chief content officer at HBO and HBO Max, told Deadline earlier this year when talking about the future of the show. 

Henry Winkler shared ‘Barry’ Season 3 update 

Now, it seems that shooting on the new season of Barry has finally begun. On August 2, Winkler, who plays Barry’s acting coach Gene Cousineau, took to Twitter to share an update. He also offered fans a first look at an image from the upcoming episodes. 

“First day back on the BARRY set,” he wrote. He also tweeted an image of a poster advertising his character’s latest production — a performance of the “holiday classic” The Elephant Man. 

Bill Hader teases what to expect when ‘Barry’ returns to HBO 

'Barry' cast on stage for a discussion of the show
The ‘Barry’ cast | Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO
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Barry Season 2 ended with a bloodbath — and a major cliffhanger. After fighting all season against his urge to kill people, Barry goes on a rampage at the monastery as he hunts down his former mentor Fuches (Stephen Root), who has revealed to Gene the location of his ex-girlfriend Janice’s dead body. 

Gene is arrested for her murder, even though Barry is the actual killer. Fuches ultimately escapes, and Gene is released from jail after police find evidence linking the killing to the Chechen mob. But just before the credits roll, Gene remembers what Fuches told him when he showed him Janice’s body: “Barry Berkman did this.” He realizes the aspiring actor he’s taken under his wing is actually a murderer. 

With that kind of set up, viewers can expect Barry Season 3 to get even darker than previous outings. “It’s really f—ed up,” Hader said of the upcoming season when speaking to reporters after his 2019 Emmy win (via The Hollywood Reporter). “It’s terrifying … we wrote ourselves into a corner.”  

Anthony Carrigan, who plays fan-favorite character NoHo Hank, told PopCulture.com that there is “really dangerous stuff” in season 3. “But the dangerous stuff makes for the most incredible stuff,” he added. He also echoed Hader’s comment about the challenge of finding a way forward after the season 2 finale.

“What I’ve seen of the third season, is that they tend to write themselves into a corner,” he said. “And then, the task is like, ‘How do we get out of it?’”

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