Streep likely to feature in season 3 of "Big Little Lies"

Author Liane Moriarty's follow-up novel to Big Little Lies, entitled Big Little Truths, is scheduled for publication this August. In a new article from Variety, we learn more details of the plot of the novel, which is to serve as the template for the upcoming third season of the HBO show. It was announced last fall that a third season was greenlit, and that the story would jump ahead ten years. All the kids will be in high school now, with a new set of problems for themselves and, of course, their doting parents. 

In the article, a partial synopsis of the story specifically includes Meryl's character from season 2, that of Mary Louise, the mother of Alexander Skarsgård's character, who of course was killed at the end of season 1 (spoiler, but seriously how have you not already seen this show?):

Celeste’s mother-in-law, Mary Louise, is behaving oddly — is it old-age forgetfulness and forthrightness, or something more sinister?

So we know that Mary Louise is in the book, and therefore highly likely to be included in the script. I have a feeling that Moriarty, considering she wrote the character of Mary Louise specifically for Meryl (who's real first name is Mary Louise as we all know), wouldn't have included Mary Louise in the new book if it hadn't already been worked out that Meryl would be willing to reprise the role in a third and (likely) final season. 

If they want this to actually be released exactly ten years prior to the first season, it will have to be ready by the end of 2027. That suggests that filming likely needs to get underway by the end of this year, maybe early 2027. It's a nice problem these days to have Meryl's name mentioned in so many possible upcoming projects. I'm not a huge fan that four of them are sort of repeats (Prada 2, Big Little Lies, a potentially third installment of Mamma Mia!, and yet another tedious season of Only Murders in the Building). Which is why I'm so interested in whether or not original projects like Useful Idiots (possibly filming this month??), the Joni Mitchell biopic, and The Corrections will get off the ground. The Gisèle Pelicot role might be a far-fetched rumor, but holy cow would that be a character to unpack.  

I'm just glad there's some reasonable likelihood that we'll see Meryl on screen over the next two years. Hopefully a couple of them will carry with them a bit more meat than a simple rehashing of well-known characters. I suspect Mery may be hungry for that. 

P.S. People who read this blog probably notice that I generally don't care too much about Meryl's voice projects. And it has perhaps been remiss of me to not post anything about the success of the animated film Hoppers. It's got a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, 73 on Metacritic, and has already made $177 millinon in just two weeks in the theaters. There was also a recent article in which Emma Mackey, who's starring in Greta Gerwig's upcoming Narnia film (Narnia: The Magician's Nephew), gives an interview for an Italian magazine and suggests that Meryl is indeed involved in the project. All reports have only ever suggested that her role would be voicing the lion Aslan. There was buzz that after delays that it was possible that Streep wasn't necessarily attached anymore. I honestly didn't pay that close of attention to it, as I couldn't have really cared less whether or not Meryl participated. But this seems to suggest pretty strongly that she is indeed involved. The Narnia film is scheduled for a theatrical release on November 26 of this year, after which it will be released on Netflix on Christmas Day.