Big Little Lies Films One Day to Preserve California Tax Credit

The third season of Big Little Lies has begun filming in a limited way, with a single day of principal photography at the Ranch Lot, part of Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, on Thursday. Merrin Dungey, who plays Detective Adrienne Quinlan, was among those filming. The series’ central stars were not involved in the shoot.

The brief session was intended to preserve the show’s approved California tax credit. State rules require principal photography to start within 180 days of a project’s conditional allocation letter, or within 240 days for productions with qualifying budgets of at least $100 million. The date the show received its approval has not been disclosed.

Full production is expected to start next year, as HBO works to coordinate the schedules of its main cast. The series stars Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Zoë Kravitz and Shailene Woodley. HBO declined to comment on the filming.

Francesca Sloane joined the project in September 2025 as a writer and executive producer, working alongside David E. Kelley, Kidman and Witherspoon. Liane Moriarty’s novel Big Little Truths, published earlier this year, is expected to provide the basis for the new season. Set a decade after the earlier story, it follows the characters and their families into a new stage of life.

The series debuted in 2017 and returned for a second season in 2019. Dungey’s detective investigates the homicide at the center of the story and remains suspicious of the women known as the Monterey Five.