Sweet Magnolias Season 3: Everything to know about the return of this Netflix fan-favorite

Sweet Magnolias is back, in a big way. The fan-favorite Netflix series, which is based on the romance book series of the same name by Sherryl Woods, debuted its third season less than a week ago. And, already, the show rocketed to the top of Netflix’s daily Top 10 chart, where it’s currently the #1 Netflix series in the US — above other popular standouts available on the streaming giant like The Lincoln Lawyer and Too Hot to Handle.

Here’s everything to know about Sweet Magnolias Season 3, including whether or not a fourth season is in the cards.

Sweet Magnolias Season 3: Trailer, recap, and more

“New relationships and new challenges are good for the soul,” says JoAnna Garcia Swisher’s Maddie Townsend in the trailer for Sweet Magnolias‘ new season.

That’s as good an intro as any for this series about childhood best friends and starring Swisher as Maddie, as well as Heather Headley (as Helen Decatur) and Brooke Elliott (as Dana Sue Sullivan). This time around, among other things, they’re all confronted by a slew of new challenges.

As a reminder of where we left off in Sweet Magnolias Season 2, the accident left long-lasting repercussions — both Kyle and Nellie are fine, but Kyle is now sidelined with a torn ACL. Meanwhile, Isaac learns that his birth mother is Serenity newspaper editor Peggy Martin, who also tells him who his father is. Noreen reconciles with Maddie, and the Magnolias also deal with a zoning issue connected to the spa — motivating them to launch a recall against the mayor, plus so much more.

As for the new season of Sweet Magnolias, Maddie tries to figure out the best way to help out Cal following the fight at Sullivan’s, Helen continues to have men troubles, and Dana Sue wants to use a surprise check to help the community — without disrupting her own family in the process.

“Small-town life is a double-edged sword,” Netflix explains via its Tudum site about the series. “On one hand, there’s a beautiful sense of community and closeness — a built-in group of people to help you through hard times. On the other hand, everybody is in your business, always.

“(But) in Sweet Magnolias — Netflix’s drama about lifelong South Carolina best friends Maddie, Helen, and Dana Sue juggling romantic relationships, family, and careers — the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.”

The book series

This series, by the way, is in good company on the streamer. Netflix has so many series to enjoy, including Sweet Magnolias, that were adapted from popular book series — upcoming examples of which include All The Light We Cannot See, based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Anthony Doerr; Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude; and Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem.

As for Sweet Magnolias, there are 11 titles in all in the book series, and you can peruse them right here. Season One of the show, by the way, is loosely based on the first three books in that series. 

Will we get a Season 4 of Sweet Magnolias?

As for what comes next — unfortunately, Netflix hasn’t revealed at this point whether the series will continue with a fourth season or not. That’s par for the course, though, as Netflix has historically waited to get at least a month’s worth of data under its belt so it can see how a new season is performing — if the demand is still sufficiently there, for example, or if the audience is tanking which would make it hard to justify the investment in a new season.

If you want a guide for when we might get word of a fourth season for Sweet Magnolias, don’t forget: It took three months after the debut of Season 2 (in February of 2022) before Netflix announced a third season. Also unclear is what impact the dual writers’ and actors’ strikes will have on the timing of when and if fans get a new season of the show.