Good news, everyone.
After Life will return for a third season this year, Ricky Gervais has confirmed.
The comedy writer said this week that his award winning and really quite touching series about grief, love, and moving on will be getting a season three - and that he's hopeful it will be coming to Netflix this year.
Speaking to ITV's Lorraine this week, Gervais said that restrictions allowing, he plans to start filming on season three before the summer and hopefully have the series on Netflix by the end of 2021.
"Everything going well, we film in April and May and then it takes a few months to edit and then it takes a couple of months to put into a 160 languages," he said.
"I'm hoping [it will air] by the end of the year."
Gervais also confirmed that After Life's third season will be its last. Despite never having shot a season three for any of his shows, the writer said he couldn't resist returning to these characters one last time.
"I've never done a third series of anything," he said. "But it felt right, and I fell in love with the characters, and I think this should be it."
After Life first debuted on Netflix in 2019 to rave reviews. The black comedy picked up a TV Choice Award for Best Comedy Series and has been nominated for a Satellite Award and a British Film Designers Film Award.
The series is part of Gervais' list of successful and largely unique in tone British comedies, including The Office UK and Extras.
Gervais has previously spoken about the success of the show online, saying that the more people like it, the more pressure he feels.
"The better it goes down the worse it is for me, you can do something fucking amazing, and everyone goes: 'Oh god, it's the best thing ever, 10/10,'" he said on Twitter.
"But if you do something else that is 9.5/10 people are like: 'It's fucking awful, this is the worst show on television', so that's what goes through my mind."
There's no official word yet as to when After Life's third season will air, but we're hoping (as is Ricky) for a 2021 release.
