Matlock Season 3 Will Have a Time Jump, Reveals Creator

Matlock‘s showrunner recently offered a major update on the timeline for Season 3, renewed earlier this year. In an interview, Jennie Snyder Urman shared that the upcoming installment won’t pick up from where Season 2 left off, but begin its story after considerable time has passed.

Jennie Snyder Urman teases time jump in Matlock Season 3

Jennie Snyder Urman teased a significant time jump between the finale of Matlock Season 2 and Season 3.

While speaking with Deadline, Urman shared that Season 3 will not “pick up directly [after the Season 2 finale].” She added, “It’ll be six months to a year, I would say.”

She also confirmed this in an interview with TVLine, while revealing that when fans next see Kathy Bates‘ titular protagonist and her law partner, Olympia Lawrence (Skye P. Marshall), they will be working in a new firm. Notably, this development was hinted at in the Season 2 finale.

“It’ll be a little time jump: six to nine months, something like that,” she stated. “Not like five years later and everything has changed. But we’re not a direct pickup, like we were this year,” Urman further clarified.

Matlock Season 3 will have a midseason premiere between 2026 and 2027. This is unlike the previous two entries, which arrived during the fall. Urman confirmed in an interview with TV Insider that she requested this change. This is because she wanted to ensure she had time to build the structure for the third outing, which she teased would be a “reset,” and future installments.

“I asked for it with the network. We had a talk,” the Charmed creator confirmed to the outlet. She added that there were a lot of ideas to think about after succeeding with the Season 2 finale. Furthermore, she stressed that she and the creatives didn’t want a repetitive narrative and that the characters had to reach “someplace real emotionally.”

Urman continued, “So we really, when we took this two-hour finale and really paid a lot of things off, what came with that was I’m going to need time after that to really build the architecture so that we have it for the next seasons.” She further stated, “I’m excited about it, but I am also grateful because we needed a little bit of time.”

Urman acknowledged that audiences would be disappointed by the long wait between Seasons 2 and 3. However, she said that this was good for her and the writers, as she wanted to get the third installment’s story right.