After years of waiting due to elongated shutdowns during the pandemic, Derry Girls returns for a third and final season.
The new season will reunite fans with the girl gang – and “the English one” – as they continue their education at Our Lady Immaculate College. Of course, causing chaos is the only thing they know how to do during the school hours but it’s pure entertainment for us.
WATCH: Derry Girls (Season 3) | Official Trailer
Season 3 began airing in the UK and Ireland on Channel 4 on April 12. And in the months since, us Aussies have already seen snippets and spoilers on social media – so we’re eagerly awaiting our own turn to binge-watch the show.
A lot of people have come to associate the hit series with Netflix, since it’s been picked up by the global streaming giant in Australia and the US. But it’s not actually a Netflix-owned show, meaning we knew it would be a while before it dropped. But by September, we were getting VERY antsy.
Where can you watch Season 3 of Derry Girls in Australia?
The series originally aired on SBS in Australia for the first and second season, but the free-to-air network hasn’t picked up the third season yet.
As for Netflix, the streaming service picked up season one and two a while after they had aired. Now – after MONTHS of waiting – Netflix have confirmed that Derry Girls Season 3 will be dropping on October 7. Finally.
Who is in Season 3 of Derry Girls?
Erin Quinn (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), Orla McCool (Louisa Harland), Clare Devlin (Nicola Coughlan), Michelle Mallon (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell) and James Maguire (Dylan Llewellyn) return as the rag-tag group of friends living in Derry in the 1990s.
Tara Lynne O’Neill is back as Mary Quinn and Tommy Tiernan as her husband Gerry Quinn. Kathy Kiera Clarke is also back as Sarah McCool, Orla’s mom, and Ian McElhinney as the grandfather to Orla and Clare.
And what would the series be without our favourite, Sister Michael (Siobhán McSweeney), the headmistress of Our Lady Immaculate College.
There’s also an exciting cameo from Northern Irish star Liam Neeson to look out for.
What happens in Season 3 of Derry Girls?
Per Channel 4: “While Northern Ireland is growing up, this gang of eejits certainly aren’t any time soon – there’s hope in the air that The Troubles may finally be over, but their troubles are only just getting started as they get ever closer to ‘adulthood’.”
When last we left off, the girls had celebrated the tour of Bill Clinton in Northern Ireland with James – who chose to stay living in town with them, rather than returning to England with his mother.
Why does Nicola Coughlan have less screen time in Season 3 of Derry Girls?
As most fans know, Nicola has a leading role in the wildly successful Shonda Rhimes series Bridgerton. The third season of which is due to go into production soon, with her character having a major storyline once again.
Filming for the Regency Era drama takes a very long time, meaning Nicola doesn’t have a whole lot of spare time in the year outside of it. The actress eneded up having to sacrifice part of her role in Derry Girls when the Northern Irish comedy delayed its filming schedule in 2021, creating a clash with the filming for Season 2 of Bridgerton.
“Last year was really difficult,” she said in an interview with Digital Spy. “I won’t lie because, you know, at the best of times trying to manage different projects, it’s such a push and pull.
“We were meant to film Derry Girls in January 2021. And I was totally free and they decided to push it again. And that caused me insane stress because I was on [what] in the industry is called first call. So it means you have to go and do the show that you’re on first call to, which was Bridgerton.
“And I was like ‘Guys, can we just film it?’ And they were like, ‘No, we’re gonna wait.’ And I was like, ‘oh’, so [we had to make] compromises happen in the script of Derry Girls. It was devastating to me because I wanted to be in all of this. But compromises had to be made.”
Regardless of her role being cut down, Nicola says it’s a wonderful season that will leave fans of the show feeling happy.
What are the cast doing after Derry Girls?
Along with Bridgerton, Nicola has landed herself a role in a new historical comedy Seize Them! alongside Sex Education‘s Aimee Lou Wood.
Saoirse has picked up a role in the superhero film The Flash, along with a part in an indie movie called Coffee Wars.
Jamie has wrapped up filming a horror film Unwelcome, due for release in 2022.
Dylan is playing Wally Nightingale in the upcoming Sex Pistols biopic Pistols and landed another role in a show called Big Boy. He’s also got a movie called Frequencies due for release.
Louisa has filmed a number of other projects simultaneously with Derry Girls and is yet to confirm any new roles beyond the show.
Siobhán, who has credited the show with “changing her life,” has already appeared in another series this year – Holding – and will next appear in Redemption and Extraordinary.
Watch Derry Girls Season 1-2 on Netflix in Australia now. Season 3 premieres on Netflix on October 7.
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