Nicole Kidman loves producing and starring within projects based upon Liane Moriarty’s works as executive produced by David E. Kelley. That much is obvious from the possible third season of HBO’s Big Little Lies. Kidman and Kelley also collaborated upon HBO’s The Undoing (based upon the thriller novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz), but for more Moriarty, they hopped over to Hulu with Nine Perfect Strangers. This series debuted way back in August 2021 and, on the surface, resembled The White Lotus in that sinister happenings went down at a resort frequented by the privileged.
A second season was finally greenlit in 2023, which is somewhat surprising, given the confusing way (and purposefully so) that the first season ended. Ambiguity seemed to be the name of the game, and let’s chat about what might come next with a mostly new cast.
Plot
In the first season, Kidman was joined by Melissa McCarthy, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Shannon, Melvin Gregg, Regina Hall, and Samara Weaving. The show revolved around unhappy, stressed-out characters who took their privileged selves to Tranquillum House, the resort led by Kidman’s Russian guru, Masha. The lost souls sought her reinvigoration of mind, body, and spirit, but healing did not come easily. Masha was revealed to be far from legit and drugged her guests with psychedelics for supposedly therapeutic purposes. Add in a rather WTF ending, and the masses flocked to the series, making it the most-watched series on Hulu at the time, even surpassing The Handmaid’s Tale.
As a result of those viewing numbers, the limited series suddenly became not-so limited, and a second season eventually landed in the cards, although honestly, man, this must have been a difficult show for which to dream up more content.
As the first season finale revealed, where each character ended up might or might not have been real, and their fates might have been the work of Frances (McCarthy) in a book called Nine Perfect Strangers. As for Masha, she had been arrested, although she was later shown driving down the highway and sitting next to her dead daughter. There were also changes from Moriarty’s book that included Masha’s previous near-death experience (in the show) being a result of getting shot by Carmel, who was somehow also at the resort with her identity unnoticed until the end.
Everything felt flat-out unpredictable, so the second season could go anywhere, too. We could learn that much of the first-season aftermath never happened, and hell, perhaps they are all still taking drugs or dead or dreaming. The only guarantee is that the second season should be equally or more bonkers than what viewers have already seen.
Cast
Kidman is back as Masha despite the ambiguity of, well, everything.
As The Hollywood Reporter recently revealed, three new cast members — Henry Golding, Mark Strong and Lena Olin — signed on for the next vaguely ominous wellness escape. They will join (as reported by Variety) Murray Bartlett, Annie Murphy, Dolly De Leon, Lucas Englander, Christine Baranski, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Aras Aydin.
Yep, Murray Bartlett has crossed over from The White Lotus to Nine Perfect Strangers. Will he poop in a suitcase? Perhaps that’s a question best not answered.
Release Date
The show’s renewal announcement was complicated by strike time in Hollywood, so this return might not happen until 2025.
Trailer
No trailer exists yet, but here’s a bit of trivia from Kidman’s husband, Keith Urban, who revealed (to Kelly Clarkson) that she didn’t really drop the character too easily, which gave him mixed feelings.