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Only Murders in the Building has been a late-summer staple since its 2021 debut, but fans are going to have to wait just a wee bit longer for the hit Hulu show’s U.K.-set sixth season. Vulture has learned that our beloved trio of crime-solving podcasters will return on December 8, about three months later than their usual late August/early September arrival. While the decision to shoot across the pond, plus some other scheduling factors, made the delay unavoidable, exec producer and showrunner John Hoffman tells us the upside is that some of this season’s episodes will now have a definite Christmas vibe. “There’s a good holiday treat coming your way: a bit of murder in London,” he says.
When last we left our accidental heroes, podcast queen Cinda Canning (Tina Fey) — or a woman looking a lot like her, with deep-red frizzy hair — has just dropped dead on the sidewalk in front of the Arconia, the same day Canning’s new U.K.-set podcast The Girl With the Curls dropped. Conveniently (and comedically), the victim grasped the building’s gate with a single hand just before expiring, giving Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) justification to solve her murder on their show. “It was technically a murder in the building because she did it with her last gasp,” Hoffman says. “But the question is, what was going on with her? That is what our trio is off to investigate.”
Helping New York’s finest (podcasters) in that mission will be a small universe of U.K. acting legends, including the queen herself, Olivia Colman; no less than three former Doctors Who (David Tennant, Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker); a Spice Girl (Geri Halliwell); Ab Fab vets Jennifer Saunders and Jane Horrocks; comedy pros such as Nicola Coughlan, Richard Ayoade, and Jamie Demetriou; and a slew of other faces familiar to anyone who watches British telly (Martin Freeman, Jim Broadbent, Derek Jacobi, Lesley Nicol, Amar Chadha-Patel, Adrian Lukis, Simone Ashley, and more). Hoffman says that with most of the season taking place away from NYC and the Arconia, OMITB “needed an entire cast of people” to fill things out. “But what’s most remarkable about the expansion is not a one of them don’t find their way seamlessly into the ensemble of it all,” he says, crediting Meryl Streep for setting a good example when she first appeared in season three. “Everybody sort of drops all pretense. Everyone’s laughing all day and doing things that are very specific and fantastic.”
So what will all these new characters be up to? And how did this trip to the land that first gave us “cozy” murder mysteries such as OMITB come together in the first place? Hoffman, who’s wrapping up production in the U.K. this week, hopped on the phone on Sunday to give us some exclusive details on the season Hulu’s marketing team has dubbed Only Murders in London. Mild spoilers ahead.
“We almost got Camilla,” Hoffman said, referring to King Charles’s wife. “I know it’s insane, but yes, there was a moment.” While he didn’t reveal exactly how the idea started percolating, Hoffman was taken aback when his casting team told him booking her Royal Highness was not out of the bounds of possibility. “I was like, ‘Wait, what? Is that real?” he laughed. “Then we kind of went down the road a little bit.” Unfortunately, the idea never came to fruition, in part because of strict U.K. union rules limiting daily shooting times on set. “You’re only shooting ten-hour days, no more.”
Because getting Camilla on set would involve a lot of logistical hoops, Hoffman says he couldn’t risk overages messing up his very tight production schedule. “I did pursue it a little bit, until I realized it’s going to be a whole thing,” he said. And what about those other two (former) royals who’ve been in the news, Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex? “When is she traveling? We’re leaving in three days,” Hoffman quipped, adding, tongue firmly in cheek: “I wouldn’t rule anything out.”
While Hoffman is still coy about specific plot points, he did reveal a few details about what some of the major guest stars will be up to in season six. Most notably, Martin’s character will learn that there’s a new U.K. version of the in-universe show that (briefly) made him famous. “Martin Freeman will go toe-to-toe at some point with Charles as to who’s the better Brazzos,” Hoffman said. That sure suggests Freeman (Fargo, The Hobbit) is playing the same role Martin did, though right now, Hoffman and the OMITB team aren’t ready to share anything more officially. One thing he did confirm: None of the famous Brits on the season will be playing themselves. “Everyone is playing a character,” Hoffman said. “If you’re going to come here, it’s to really craft characters that live and breathe in the country’s certain tradition and then subvert that tradition.”
Hoffman told us the Ab Fab star will be involved in the Brazzos reboot in some way, and, more importantly, her character was inspired by Vivienne Westwood, the iconoclastic designer who passed away in 2022. “I had an incredible time many years ago working on a screenplay with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard on the life of Vivienne Westwood,” he said. “So I spent a lot of time here in London developing that screenplay with her.” The movie didn’t happen, but when Hoffman and his writers started plotting season six of OMITB, “I said, ‘Okay, there’s all of this information I have based on her. Is there anything we can do with that?’” The results of those discussions will be seen in the work of Saunders, whose character will “lean into the fashion-design world in great British style, with a tip of the hat to the great Vivienne.”
“I can’t give away much of what Olivia’s playing, although this is a season which leans very much into the female mystery side of things.” Hoffman teased. “The U.K. is the home of Agatha Christie. This is where Cinda Canning might have met her maker in some way. And all of them are following along in the tradition of the cozy murder mystery. Olivia is in that line, as well as a memoirist.” He says the show will pair that rich British history with “the world of true-crime podcasting. That’s the mirror that we’re playing with.” We can only hope that means the season ends with Charles, Oliver, and Mabel gathering all the suspects in a room as they reveal the murderer.
“We went all over,” Hoffman said. And yes, thankfully, that does include taking a visit to a more rural part of the country, where — as any fan of British cozy mysteries will tell you — some of the most interesting murders take place. “One of the more signature episodes is called ‘The Country House,’ and that sits in a very specific vibe and look, and quite a collection of characters,” he explained. While he wouldn’t specify exactly where the episode takes place, “We got about an hour outside of London … and into some of the stately homes.”
While Hoffman concedes “there was a moment” of discussing the idea of including actors who’d been on the long-running British sci-fi series, “The Doctor Who of it all was more secondary,” he said. “I was just casting who would be great, and it was only more around the corner when we said, ‘Wait a minute: David Tennant, Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker — how many more? But it’s hard not to bump into a Doctor Who somewhere along the way in London.” Also, landing Whittaker was more the result of chance: The actress worked with Hoffman on his upcoming Apple TV limited series Wild Things. He says she asked him whether he’d be game to include her in the upcoming London-set season of OMITB: “I said, ‘In a heartbeat.’”
Once Hoffman and his scribes knew OMITB would be returning later than usual, they decided to lean into the time shift. “With the show airing at the top of December, it was impossible to avoid,” he says. “Within the story, we are moving towards the end of the year. The end of last season was fall, so we had to carry through on that.” And while the season was shot during a (very hot) summer in Blighty, the production aimed to capture a winter “that feels a bit rainy and a bit cloudy,” he said. “There will be a bit of a lean into the holiday season by the end of it all.” Finally, a chance to put Martin Short in a Santa — er, Father Christmas — suit.
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