Bill Hader’s Excellent HBO Show Barry Shooting Back-To-Back Seasons
We have some excellent news for fans of Bill Hader's Barry.
This article is more than 2 years old
Barry fans, rejoice! The Bill Hader series on HBO is one of those rare gems that is often binge-watched, all while audiences dread getting to the end, because they know they’re going to want more. Before the pandemic, fans were impatient to get season three of the show and many complained that the wait was intolerable after the cliffhanger ending of season two. Then, filming shut down. Time has not been kind to Barry fans. Now, according to sources for Bleeding Cool, filming begins on Monday, July 26, 2021. Yes, in only days. Not only that, Bill Hader and the team are planning to film seasons three and four back-to-back. While they didn’t share a release schedule for the HBO hit, this should mean a very short wait between the upcoming seasons.
BleedingCool also added that the lot where they film Barry was buzzing with activity the other night. While they hadn’t yet started filming, it sounds like they could be doing a table read to prepare for filming.
There is plenty of good reason to believe this news from BleedingCool. Bill Hader has said that the writers used lockdown to refine the season three scripts and then get started on season four. At this point, scripts for seasons three and four of Barry have been completed, according to what Hader said months ago. As a co-creator and star of this series, Hader has always been passionate about the project. After it rose up to become a series that is often recognized as one of the best HBO has ever done, it would make sense that Hader is ready to move forward quickly and that the studio is willing to back him up on that.
A lot of the best stories are difficult to market. Barry has always been one of those. It’s about an ex-military, now hitman, who moves from the midwest out to California, where he decides he wants to become a famous actor and signs up for acting classes. The main character is played by Bill Hader, and while it’s funny, the actor known for Saturday Night Live is actually a quite serious and troubled hitman. Yes, it’s a comedy. Yes, it’s a half-hour show, like a sitcom, but it’s definitely not a sitcom. Yes, it’s an action series, but no, it’s not like you can compare Barry to The Expendables.
While a release schedule for either season of Barry isn’t yet known, this is a great time to catch up on the series on HBO Max if you haven’t seen it yet. It’s also a good time for a rewatch for fans. This Bill Hader project isn’t like anything else that’s out there. When a show is particularly great, audiences can sometimes get nervous about the follow-ups. Can the show really deliver something that great in upcoming productions? Barry managed to come back from an excellent season one that felt to many like it should have been the end. Few had faith that Bill Hader could follow that up. But then he delivered an even better season two that made critics take notice, particularly with ronny/lily, an Emmy nominated episode that raised the bar on what this show can do. Yes, that’s the episode with the hit gone wrong.
How is Bill Hader possibly going to follow up season two of a television series this unique? It’s really hard to say because this show is so unique, but fortunately, he seems driven to do so. They worked hard on the scripts during the lockdown. Now, filming back to back, means they are moving full steam ahead. That kind of drive carries big promises, and now, a faster release schedule.
