Virgin River Season 6: Release, Cast and Everything We Know

While Part 2 of Virgin River Season 5 is still set to premiere on Netflix later this year, some fans are already looking forward to Season 6’s release.

Virgin River mainly explores the love story of Melinda Monroe and Jack Sheridan as well as the remarkable stories of the different citizens that reside in the titular town. The series is based on the novel of the same name by Robyn Carr.

The American drama made its debut on Netflix on December 6, 2019. After a strong first three seasons, Virgin River was renewed for a fourth and fifth season in September 2021.

Part 1 of Season 5 was released on September 7 on Netflix.

Virgin River Season 6: When Will It Come Out?
In May 2023, Netflix officially announced that Virgin River had been renewed for a sixth season ahead of its Season 5 premiere. The renewaled the streaming service’s confidence cemented in the series.

However, after Part 1 of Season 5 premiered, new data indicated that viewership for the latest season dwindled to 1.3 million households in the United States during its first four days.

This number is down by 13% from Season 4’s debut in July 2022 with an estimated 1.46 million viewers.

Despite the drop, Netflix assures fans in September 2023 that Season 6 is still in development.

Production has yet to begin, though, for Season 6, mainly due to the ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes in Hollywood by the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild, respectively.

unexpectedly, in May 2023, Annette O’Toole, who portrays Virgin River’s mayor Hope McCrea, shared a brief update on Instagram about Season 6’s filming schedule, reaffirming that it will soon begin once “the strike is settled: “Some roses to celebrate the good news: ‘Virgin River’ season 5 will air in the fall and we’re going to film season 6 as soon as the strike is settled.”

Following the announcement of Season 6, Virgin River screenwriter Richard Keith confirmed in May 2023 that the scriptwriting process for the upcoming season already began prior to the reveal:

“Now that season six of [‘Virgin River’] has been announced, I can share this photo of Erin Cardillo, Rachel Borders, and I working to finish a draft at 11:53 p.m. on May 1st seven minutes before pencils down at midnight … Patrick Sean Smith isn’t pictured because he is in the other room furiously finishing a different draft!”

Keith’s update means that production will not begin sooner than expected since Season 6’s script is expected to be finished first. Possible rewrites for improvement may be taken into consideration as well.

If the strikes are not resolved by the end of 2023, then production will likely begin between mid to late 2024.

This would mean that Virgin River Season 6 could potentially arrive on Netflix sometime between 2025 and 2026, considering the streamer’s release schedule, reshoots, and post-production.

For a more concrete timeline, Keith mentioned on Instagram that “there won’t be any Virgin River on Netflix until 2025” due to the Hollywood strikes:

“Anybody else excited for the holiday episodes of ‘Virgin River’ to drop on November 30th!? All I want for Christmas is my two… unions to get a fair deal from the AMPTP. If they don’t hurry up there won’t be any ‘Virgin Rive’r on Netflix until 2025…”

All in all, it will be a long wait for Virgin River diehards.