“Matlock” star Jason Ritter teased some big changes ahead in season 3.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for season 2 of “Matlock.”
“I think I’ve heard that there will be a time jump, but who knows how long exactly,” Ritter, who plays attorney Julian Markston, recently told Us Weekly. “I think we’ll be seeing a lot of character shakeups.”
He continued, “Certainly for my charater, we ended the last season with me in a little bit of trouble. So, we’ll see if I’m able to hold on to my law license or if I have to recreate myself.”
Season 2 of “Matlock” came to an end in April, resolving the CBS legal drama’s longest-running conflict: the Wellbrexa big pharma opioid scandal. Julian was arrested, along with his father, Howard “Senior” Markston (Beau Bridges).
After the major storyline was resolved, the “Matlock” writers needed time to regroup and figure out what’s next. Rather than returning in the fall as usual, “Matlock” has been pushed to midseason. Season 3 will debut in 2027.
During an April interview with TV Insider, series creator Jennie Snyder Urman said the schedule change was her decision.
“I asked for it with the network. We had a talk,” she said. “I just feel like we had so much stuff to think about because we really landed the plane on this [season]. We really thought that was important because we didn’t want to keep dragging out the same story and the characters have to get to someplace real emotionally.”
Urman has also confirmed that season 3 will pick up with Madeline Kingston (Kathy Bates) and Olympia Lawrence (Skye P. Marshall) in a new law office after the collapse of Jacobson Moore.
“It’ll be a little time jump: six to nine months, something like that,” she told TVLine in April. “Not like five years later and everything has changed.”
Ritter told Us Weekly that he thinks season 3 starts shooting in September.
“We don’t have scripts yet,” he said. “The writers are taking a good long time to really make sure that they have season 3 right.”
Seasons 1 and 2 of “Matlock” are available to stream on Paramount+.