FX comedy-drama The Bear, which streams on Disney+ in Australia, has quietly been renewed for a fourth season.
Season 4 of the series will film back-to-back with Season 3, which premieres this June.
A spokesperson for FX declined to speak to Deadline, where this story was first reported.
Speculation is already brewing around whether the fourth season will spell the end for The Bear. But according to sources (that Deadline didn’t name), Season 5 of The Bear ‘remains a possibility’.
The reasoning behind filming seasons 3 and 4 back-to-back may well be because of the busy schedules of stars Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri, who have both recently starred in the films The Iron Claw and Bottoms, respectively.
The first season of the The Bear followed a young chef (White) moving from the fine dining world and returning to Chicago to run his family’s sandwich shop following the suicide of his brother.
As our reviewer Anthony Morris summarises: ‘[that] season ended with Carmen (Jeremy Allen White), award-winning New York chef, back running his family’s shabby sandwich restaurant, putting up a sign announcing that the Beef was closing, and a new fine dining establishment called the Bear was coming. Coupled with a surprise discovery that seemingly put their endless money woes behind them, it seemed like a new day was dawning for the ramshackle crew.
‘Obviously there’s no fun in that, so [season 2] starts almost immediately afterwards with the same old problems rapidly reasserting themselves. For one, a new restaurant means renovating the old space, and anyone who’s ever watched a home renovation show knows how smoothly that goes.’
In the second season, the scope of the story grew to include renovations, family matters, relationships, and the personal growth of side characters. Both seasons have been critically acclaimed.
Read: The Bear Season 2 review: mo’ money, mo’ problems
The Bear has already aired its second season, but the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes meant it wasn’t eligible to compete at the recent 75th Emmy Awards.
While Season 3 of The Bear is confirmed to stream in June, we do not yet have confirmation on a streaming date for Season 4.
